Wherever You Go
by hunterofartemis080
Summary: A new regeneration of the Doctor brings him and Adelaide closer than ever before. An old friend follows them throughout the universe, watching their relationship resurge. It appears as though the stars have finally begun to align, but is everything really as simple as it appears? Sixth in the Crossed Stars. Time Lady - 12/OC
1. Veils

**Veils**

The arrival of a living dinosaur in Victorian London was clearly the result of the Time Lords – most specifically, the Doctor, as Vastra was fairly certain Adelaide would never let that happen if she was completely in charge. When the Doctor was involved, however, things were a bit more uncertain.

Especially when said dinosaur vomited out a flying blue police box.

Vastra, Jenny, and Strax hurried down the embankment towards where the TARDIS had landed, a crowd of people watching from above. "This is not a day for jumping to conclusions," Vastra was saying, continuing their previous conversation. "Strax," she gestured towards the box, knowing Adelaide's preference for knocking, "if you wouldn't mind?"

The small alien hurried forward, knocking on the door. "Hello? Exit the box, and surrender to the glory of the Sontaran empire."

A tall older man, grey-haired, opened the door and looked out with a furrowed brow, smoke billowing out around him. "Shush." He slammed the door again.

Strax frowned. "Doctor?"

The man reappeared, his Scottish accent much stronger now. "We were being chased by a giant dinosaur, but I think I managed to give it the slip." He shut the door again, but then opened it, frowning at Strax. "Sleepy?"

"Sir?"

The Doctor, for this man was the Doctor, stepped out of the TARDIS. "Bashful? Sneezy? Dopey?" he pointed at him. "Grumpy!" He looked up, seeing Vastra and Jenny. "Oh, you two. The green one and the not-green one. Or it could be the other way round, I mustn't prejudge, Adelaide always says." Clara stumbled out of the TARDIS, looking quite disheveled. "Oh, you remember...er...thingy. The...er...not-me-or-Adelaide one. The asking questions one." He shrugged. "Names, not my area."

"Clara," the human provided.

"Well, it might be Clara. Might not be. It's a lottery."

Adelaide, wearing only a black tank-top, stepped out of the TARDIS. "It is Clara," she told him, running a hand through her hair.

The Time Lord grinned at her before glancing at Clara again. "Well, I'm not ruling it out." The dinosaur roared, making the Doctor spin to look up at it. "Oi, big man, shut it!" He glanced at Vastra again. "Oh, you've got a dinosaur too." He paused. "Big woman, sorry."

"Doctor?" Adelaide said, stepping forward. "You need to calm down, please."

The Doctor, however, frowned up at the dinosaur. "I'm not flirting, by the way. I don't do that. Not unless it's Adelaide, and she doesn't let me do it in front of people."

Adelaide sighed. Clara eyed the Doctor, stepping closer to the woman. "I think something's gone wrong."

"It's a new regeneration cycle," Adelaide told her. "It will be a bit more difficult for the Doctor to get used to than a normal regeneration...not that his regenerations happen that normally." She hadn't regenerated nearly as many times as the Doctor – about half as many times, really – but she did understand how they worked.

The Doctor spun to look at Clara. "I remember you! You're Handles! You used to be a little...a little robot head that Adelaide defended instead of me...and now you..." he looked her up and down. "You've really let yourself go."

The dinosaur roared again. "Reduce the frequency of your sonic lanterns, Vastra, please," Adelaide called.

Jenny shook her head. "Why?"

"You're giving her a headache." She gestured up at the dinosaur.

"How do you know?"

"Come on, Clara," the Doctor said, though it was Strax who'd spoken. "You know that we speak dinosaur."

"He's not Clara," Adelaide corrected. "She's Clara."

"Well, they're very similar heights."

"I'm a similar height."

The Doctor ran a hand through her hair. "But you're ginger. It stands out." He looked at Clara and Strax again. "Maybe you should wear labels?" He frowned. "Why...why are you all doing that? Why are you...you're all going dark and wobbly. Stop that."

Clara glanced at Adelaide again. "I don't think we are."

"Never mind. Everyone take five." The Doctor closed his eyes, pitching forward. Adelaide just managed to catch him before he hit his head. Clara hurried to help her support the man.

"What do we do?" Clara asked her.

Jenny frowned at the Doctor. "I don't understand. Who is he? Where's the Doctor?"

"This is the Doctor," Adelaide told her simply. "Terribly sorry to ask this of you again, Vastra, but I'm afraid the situation isn't ideal."

The woman just smiled. "Here we go again."

|C-S|

It had taken quite a bit of effort for Adelaide to convince the Doctor to change into a nightshirt, as she insisted that he needed to sleep in order to let his body settle after a regeneration, particularly this one. He, however, had suddenly taken offense at the room they were standing in – Vastra's spare room.

"It's simply misunderstandable to me. I don't know what it is. Who invented this room?"

"I don't know," Adelaide said, getting more and more annoyed as time went on. She was normally quite good at keeping calm but...after so long of being stuck on Christmas she didn't have the best patience. "But Doctor, please lie down."

"It doesn't make sense." The Doctor turned, looking around the room. "Look, it's only got a bed in it. Why is there only a bed in it?"

"It's a bedroom," Adelaide told him. "You have one."

"But what do you do when you're awake?"

"You leave."

He frowned. "So you've got a whole room for not being awake in. But what's the point? You're just missing the room. And don't look in that mirror." He pointed at it. "It's absolutely furious." And then he frowned at her. "What's gone wrong with your accent?"

She sighed. "My accent hasn't changed, Doctor."

"But it's developed a fault!"

She pinched the bridge of her nose, hearing someone giggle from the hallway. "Listening at doors is quite rude, you know."

The door opened a second later, revealing Jenny, Clara, and Vastra all looking a bit sheepish as Adelaide was still using her 'teaching voice'. "Sorry," Clara mumbled, making the Doctor point at her too.

"It's spreading!"

"Doctor, it's sleep time now. You keep passing out anyways and I'd much prefer you do it in a bed this time."

"It's because of all these beds!" He took her hands, still almost a foot taller than her. "Why don't I just take a standy-up catnap? It'll be quicker."

She raised her eyebrows. "Since when have you done those?"

"Well, generally whenever anyone but you starts talking. I like to skip ahead to our bits. It saves time." He blinked. "And I told myself I shouldn't tell you that."

Adelaide just guided the Doctor back to the bed, forcing him to sit down. "That's very rude."

"That's why I wasn't going to tell you..." as he spoke, Adelaide put her hands on either side of his temple. A second later, the Doctor fell back, asleep...even snoring.

"Clara, help me readjust him," she called and the human hurried forward to do just that.

"So what now?" Clara asked her.

"He needs rest." Adelaide stepped back.

"So what do we do? How do we fix him?"

Adelaide looked at her sharply. "Fix him?"

Clara nodded, immediately looking uncertain. "Jenny," Vastra said, "I will be in my chamber. Would you be kind enough to fetch my veil?"

"That's not necessary, Vastra," Adelaide said. "I'll explain. I believe Clara's just a bit overwhelmed." Clara had the distinct impression that two people who were much smarter than her were having a conversation as though she wasn't in the room.

Vastra, after a moment, nodded and left the room, though Jenny stayed. Clara looked at Adelaide. "What have I done wrong?" Adelaide just turned to the window, where they could hear the dinosaur still. "What's wrong with it?"

"'I am alone,'" Adelaide started to translate, speaking quietly. "'The world which shook at my feet, and the trees and the sky, have gone. And I am alone now. Alone. The wind bites now, and the world is grey, and I am alone here.'"

"Can't see me..." the Doctor mumbled, making all three women turn to look at him. "Doesn't see me. Can't see me."

"Who can't see it? I think all of London can see it."

"That wasn't the dinosaur," Adelaide said, looking towards Jenny now.

"Excuse me, ma'ams," Jenny caught Adelaide's intention. "Wouldn't it be better to let him sleep in quiet?"

"I think we'll follow you," Adelaide said. "Let the Doctor get rest. Do you have somewhere else that we can talk privately?"

Jenny nodded, leading them both out of the room and towards a small room a bit down the hall, more like a study mixed with a sitting room. Once they were alone, Adelaide leaned back against the desk there, giving Clara the distinct impression of what she must have looked like as a professor, and gave Clara a look that let her know it was time for questions. "Where did he get that face? Why's it got lines on it? It's brand new. How can his hair be all grey? He only just got it." She spoke extremely quickly but went silent when Adelaide held up a hand.

"When Time Lords regenerate, they can become anything: old, young, man, woman, blonde, grey, ginger. With much focus, we can choose our faces – those transitioning from females tend to be the best at that. But, on average, it's a complete lottery, with almost no control over what face you get."

"But he's old!"

"The Doctor is old," Adelaide said. "As am I. We have both been in this universe for centuries." She smiled for a second, thinking of something Vastra had once said to them, the woman prone to poetic language. "We have 'seen stars fall to dust'. The Doctor chose a young face because he knew it was his last. Because he wanted to face his death with as much energy as possible. Because he wanted to hide." They'd had this conversation over the centuries on Christmas before the Doctor had started to forget things. Adelaide had always wondered, and he'd taken the chance to answer. "The Doctor and I, like everyone else, hide behind walls."

"Why?"

"To be accepted, both by ourselves and others." Adelaide crossed her arms. "Do you understand, Clara?"

"I...I think so."

Adelaide sighed. "I'm sorry if I was harsh. I'm finding it quite difficult to keep control of my emotions after Christmas." She shook her head. "I should have run off to the Stoics." She'd had that idea, once, back on Gallifrey when she'd gotten particularly annoyed with the people around her.

Clara smirked. "Had a pin-up of Marcus Aurelius when I was fifteen."

"I knew there was a reason we got along," Adelaide laughed.

|C-S|

The Doctor woke with a start, surprised to find that he was alone in the room. He could have sworn Adelaide was there with him...she was always with him. She would always be with him. Maybe she'd gone to find her sweater, he knew she'd lost it. Yes, that must have been it. She didn't like not having her sweater.

And he could smell something. Something he wanted. He jumped out of the bed, lying on the floor in order to look under it, sniffing. Eventually, he found a piece of chalk underneath the radiator, which was precisely what he was looking for.

Adelaide would likely be quite upset with him about the fact he started to write on the floor and walls, but there were just so many things running through his head. So many numbers, so many facts, all trying to find their place in this new brain.

And then the dinosaur roared outside. He looked at the window for a moment. Adelaide would be quite cross if he went on an adventure without her, but...he opened the door, stared out of it for a second, and then shook his head. "Door boring. Not me." He turned and opened the window, grinning. "Me."

He honestly wasn't quite certain how he managed to get onto the roof, but he had, and he was quite impressed with himself. After all, in order to speak to someone properly, you had to see things from their perspective...okay, so that might not have meant actually attempting to get to their eye level, but it was the thought that counted.

"Oi!" he called, running across the roof towards where the dinosaur was roaming in the distance. "Oi! Oi! Sorry! Sorry, it's all my fault! My time machine got stuck in your throat!" He shrugged. "It happens. I brought you along by accident. That's mostly how I meet people, but don't worry, I promise I will get you home! I swear! Whatever it takes, I will keep you safe." He mimed rocking a baby. "You will be at home" made the shape of a house "again!"

Before the dinosaur could answer, it burst into flames, roaring in pain before it collapsed. "Stop that! Who's doing that? No, don't do that!"

|C-S|

Inside the building, Adelaide froze, hearing the roar of the dinosaur. Without a word to Clara, she ran out of the room, hearing Vastra having a similar realization below her. "That came from the river!"

"We need the carriage!" She called down, hurrying down the stairs.

|C-S|

Meanwhile, the Doctor leaped from the roof onto a tree. The bough he had grabbed broke, sending him tumbling until he somehow managed to get caught, upside down, hanging above the street. Thankfully, transport was approaching.

"Halt! Sorry, I'm going to have to relieve you of your pet."

The driver of the carriage scoffed. "You're what?"

"Shut up, I was talking to the horse." He flipped from the tree onto the horse's back, flashing his sonic behind him to free it.

"What are you doing?" the driver shouted.

"Forwards!" he galloped off.

|C-S|

"Out of the way, human scum," Strax shouted, driving the carriage after where they saw the Doctor going. The man had acquired a horse, somehow, and was making Adelaide very jealous at the moment. "Hi-yah! Jurassic emergency. Yah!"

"What do you think's happened?" Jenny asked, looking back to Vastra and Adelaide.

"Sabotage," Adelaide shrugged, sliding back into the carriage.

Vastra nodded. "Strax!" she banged on the carriage. "Come on, Strax!" they heard him crack a whip and the horses moved faster. "That's better."

|C-S|

The carriage managed to stop very quickly once they reached the bridge, Adelaide one of the first out as the Doctor was standing on the edge of the bridge, watching the burning remains of the dinosaur. "Sorry, sorry," he was mumbling. "I'm sorry, sorry, sorry."

"Doctor," Adelaide said, climbing up to stand next to him, the man instantly taking her hand.

"She was scared," he said, speaking to her. "She was scared and alone. I brought her here and look what they did."

"We brought her here," Adelaide corrected, knowing he wouldn't let her take the blame either. "I was the one piloting."

Vastra looked up at them. "Who or what could have done this thing?"

"No..." the Doctor said.

"I'm sorry?"

"No. That is not the question. That is not where we start."

"The question is how!" Strax provided. "The flesh itself has been combusted."

"No, no, shut up." The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "What do they all have for brains, pudding? Why can't we meet a decent species? Planet of the pudding brains."

"Are you ruder in this regeneration because I kept trying to make you be polite in the last one?"

He grinned and turned to face the trio of women and Strax, Adelaide doing the same. "A dinosaur is burning in the heart of London. Nothing left but smoke and flame. The question is...have there been any similar murders?"

Vastra gasped. "Yes. Yes, by the Goddess, there have."

The Doctor frowned down at the river bank, watching the crowd of humans that had already gathered despite the late hours. "Look at them all, gawking. Question two...if all the pudding brains are gawking, then what is he?" he pointed at the one man walking away from the spectacle quite calmly.

"He seems remarkably unmoved by the available spectacle," Vastra said, frowning.

"Do you think that is whoever..."

"Doctor!" Adelaide's shout made them all turn again. The Time Lady was now standing there looking down at the river as the man had actually jumped into the river. "Really?"

"What's he doing?" Clara gasped. "He'll drown."

"Unlikely." Adelaide sighed. "Especially because I'm going after him."

"Why?"

"The Doctor has taken up a case, and I am not going to let him leave me behind this time, especially this early in his regeneration." Adelaide jumped back down, needing to hurry to get to the river bank to follow him before he got too far away. "Goodbye, stay safe."

Vastra shook her head, knowing that no one else had any chance to follow the Time Lords. "If we are to see them again, we must also take up the case."

|C-S|

The Doctor, who was now incredibly dirty, was in the process of rummaging through the rubbish at the end of an alley. Adelaide, meanwhile, stood behind him looking decidedly cleaner, though that could have been because she was in black instead of his white nightshirt.

He eventually stopped upon finding a mirror, frowning at it, looking as though it had betrayed him. "Bitey..." he mumbled, turning to look at Adelaide. "The air...it's bitey. It's wet and bitey."

"It's cold," Adelaide reminded him. "And you're still wet."

"That's right. It's cold. It's cold, I knew it was a thing. I need...um..."

"Clothes?"

"I need clothes! That's what I need. And a big, long scarf..." he frowned, making a face. "No, no, move on from that. Looked stupid." He stepped forward, taking her hand. "Have you seen this face before?"

Adelaide had found something distinctly familiar about the face of the man the Doctor had become, but she couldn't place it. She had the vague idea it had come from the beginning of her time as Caroline, back when her memories were still extremely hazy. "Maybe?"

He nodded. "I'm sure that I have. You know, I never know where the faces come from. They just pop up. Zap." He demonstrated with his free hand. "Faces like this one. Look, it's covered in lines. But I didn't do the frowning. Who frowned me this face?" He shook his head. "Why this one? Why did I choose this face? It's like I'm trying to tell myself something. Like I'm trying to make a point. But what is so important that I can't just tell myself what I'm thinking?"

"The subconscious can do wonderful things," Adelaide reminded him.

The Doctor held up the broken mirror he'd found, studying his expression again. "It's alright right up until the eyebrows. Then it just goes haywire. Look at the eyebrows." He lowered the mirror. "These are attack eyebrows. You could take bottle tops off with these." She raised her own eyebrows. "They're cross! They're crosser than the rest of my face. They're independently cross. They probably want to cede from the rest of my face and set up their own independent state of eyebrows." He blinked, eyes widening. "That's Scot. I am Scottish. I've gone Scottish! Oh, that's good, oh...it's good I'm Scottish. I'm Scottish. I am Scottish." He was clearly attempting to practice the accent. "I can complain about things, I can really complain about things!"

"Not being Scottish never stopped you before."

He pointed at her. "You're not Scottish."

"No, I'm not, Doctor, I know that."

He switched to holding a bit of her hair, frowning. "Why'd you get to be ginger twice?"

"Because I'm polite." Adelaide stepped backward, pulling the Doctor after her. "Now, let's go find each other some coats."

|C-S|

Vastra, incredibly focused, was standing at an easel with Jenny a bit before her, the woman posing in just a corset and shift. "Hmm..." Vastra hummed. "Spontaneous combustion."

"Is that like love at first sight?" Jenny said, smirking a bit.

"Hmm." Vastra marked something on the easel. "A little. It is the theory that human beings can, with little or no inducement, simply explode."

"You don't need to flirt with me. We're already married."

Vastra just shook her head, rather wishing Adelaide could have stayed so that the two of them could bounce theories off each other. "It's scientific nonsense, of course."

Jenny frowned. "Marriage?"

"Hush! There have been nine reported incidents of people apparently exploding in the last month."

Jenny nodded. "And you think they weren't spontaneous."

"I think whoever killed the dinosaur had at least nine previous victims. All of these perished in the same spectacular fashion." She turned the easel so that Jenny could see it, revealing her map covered in newspaper cuttings and various notes.

Jenny lowered her arms. "I thought you were painting me."

"I was working."

"Well, why am I posing then?"

"Well," Vastra shrugged, "you brighten the room tremendously. Chin up a little." She reached out, tapping Jenny's chin.

"Oh," Jenny sighed, still doing as Vastra had asked, "I don't understand why I'm doing this."

"Art?" Vastra said, but Jenny just moved to study the notes herself. "Now, why destroy the victims so completely? It's difficult, it draws attention. What advantage is to be gained?"

Jenny nodded. "Well, tell us, then."

"Concealment, perhaps."

"Concealment?"

"It's a fanciful theory, but it fits the facts. By destroying the body so completely, you conceal what is missing from it."

Jenny frowned, shaking her head. "Missing from the body?"

"Madame Vastra!" Clara shouted, bursting into the room a second later.

Vastra looked pleasantly surprised. "Clara, excellent. Pop your clothes on that chair there."

"Look." Clara showed Vastra the page of adverts she'd rushed into the room clutching.

Vastra nodded. "Advertisements, yes. So many. It's a distressing modern trend."

"No, look. Look." She pointed at a specific advert: 'Impossible Girl. Lunch on the other side.'

|C-S|

After tea, which Vastra had claimed was necessary to continue, had been acquired Vastra flicked through the rest of the paper, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "There appears to be nothing of significance in the rest of the newspaper. Not even in the agony column."

Jenny shook her head. "We can't know it's from the Doctor or Adelaide."

Clara frowned. "Of course it's from them. The Impossible Girl. That's what they call me."

"They say lunch, but not when or where. Adelaide would never do something like that."

"'On the other side'?" Jenny added. "The other side of London? Bit vague."

"The other side of regeneration, perhaps, once he's recovered?" Vastra offered.

"So what am I supposed to do, guess where we're meeting?"

Vastra shrugged. "Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps you're supposed to prove that you still know him."

"But he has Adelaide, and Adelaide knows that I know him." Clara shook her head. "And the Doctor, he doesn't do puzzles. Really doesn't have the attention span."

"Adelaide does."

Clara frowned, studying the paper. "Notice everything...use your eyes," she mumbled to herself, and then she lifted the paper up so that she could see through it. There was another add that lined up exactly with the one they were studying, and she flipped the paper over to read it.

'Mancini's Family Restaurant, the Best Dinner in London'.

"Found it," Clara grinned.

|C-S|

Clara, after spending a moment studying the building the ad had directed her to, entered. A sign told her to seat herself and, after not seeing the Doctor or Adelaide anywhere, Clara just found a seat in a booth. She studied the paper as she waited, looking for any sign of the particular time the meeting was supposed to take place.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor said, making her jump. The Doctor and Adelaide had appeared in the booth, both having acquired coats, though it was clear neither had dressed like Clara had – for the time period. Adelaide was using a long coat as a functional dress presumably to avoid stares.

"Where'd you get those coats?" Clara eyed them both.

"I had a few coins from Christmas in my pocket that functioned, at a quick glance, as Victorian currency," Adelaide said simply, the Doctor nodding along.

"So you stole them?"

"Adelaide never steals!" the Doctor said, sounding rather offended. "Stealing is rude, and Adelaide's never rude. I'm the rude one!"

Adelaide pat the Doctor's hand. "Yes, Doctor, you are."

The Doctor grinned, seemingly happy at the fact Adelaide was holding his hand again, but that just made Clara shake her head, smiling. "No, don't smile. I will smile first and then you know it's safe to smile."

"Are you cross with me? Being cross is rude and you don't want to be rude because then Ad..."

"I'm not cross," Clara cut him off. "But if I was cross it would be your fault...yes, I am cross."

The Doctor nodded. "I guessed that."

"I am extremely cross."

"Why?"

"Why?" Clara scoffed. "An ordinary person wants to meet someone that they know very well for lunch. What do they do?"

"Well," the Doctor shrugged, "they probably get in touch and suggest lunch. That's what Adelaide would do."

"Okay...what sort of person would put a cryptic note in...in a newspaper advert?"

The Doctor shrugged, glancing at Adelaide. "Well, I wouldn't like to say, Adelaide would probably get cross."

"Go on, Doctor," Adelaide prompted.

"Well, I would say that that person would be an egomaniac, needy, game-player sort of person."

Clara sighed, shaking her head. "Ah, thank you. Well, at least that hasn't changed."

"And I don't suppose it ever will."

"No, I don't suppose it will, either."

The Doctor sighed. "Clara, honestly, we don't want you to change. It was no bother, really. We saw your advert, Adelaide figured it out. We're happy to play your game."

Clara frowned. "No, I didn't place the ad. You placed the ad."

"No, we didn't."

"Yes, you two placed the ad, I figured it out. Impossible Girl," she gestured at herself, "see? Lunch," at the table before them.

"No, look," the Doctor took the paper, gesturing at it, "the Impossible...that is a message from the Impossible Girl."

"For the Impossible Girl."

Adelaide eyed the room...which she was fairly certain was not full of actual people. "If neither of us placed the ad..."

"Hang on," Clara paused. "Egomaniac, needy, game-player?"

"This is a trap."

"That was me?"

The Doctor waved a hand at her. "Never mind that."

"Yes, I am minding that."

"Clara..."

"You were talking about me?"

"Clara," the Doctor turned to face her, "what is happening right now in this restaurant to you, me, and Adelaide is more important than your egomania."

"Nothing is more important than my egomania," she hissed, before both of them blinked.

"Right, you actually said that."

Clara pointed at him. "You never mention that again."

"It's a vanity trap," Adelaide shook her head. "Goodness, I've gotten slow."

The Doctor, quickly, plucked a hair from his head and considered it. Clara eyed him. "And that isn't the only grey one, if you are...er...having a cull."

"Adelaide likes it. Do you have a problem with grey ones?"

Clara raised her eyebrows. "If I got new hair and it was grey, I would have a problem."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "I bet you would."

"Meaning?"

"It's too short," Adelaide called, having taken the hair from the Doctor at some point.

The man just leaned over and plucked one from Clara, making her frown. "Sorry, it was the only one out of place. I'm sure that you would want it killed."

Clara sighed, clearly attempting to keep herself calm. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Notice everything," Adelaide mumbled, taking Clara's hair. "We're attempting to measure the air disturbance in the room."

"Right. Moments when you know you are boring."

Adelaide dropped the hair, both Time Lords watching as it fell straight down. "There is something extremely wrong with everybody else in this room," the Doctor whispered.

"Mmm," Clara nodded. "Basically, don't you always think that until Adelaide tells you it's rude to voice your opinions?"

"For the record," Adelaide said, "I also usually think that." Over the centuries, she'd learned that people tended not to like it when you looked at them with obvious dislike and complete non-understanding.

The other children had called her strange from a young age. She'd quickly learned that, for the majority of things, you could think whatever you wanted so long as you didn't actually say it out loud. No one really cared if they didn't how you really felt.

"Look at them," the Doctor told Clara but, when the woman moved to do just that, he frowned. "Don't look."

"You just said to look."

"Look without looking," Adelaide took a menu, looking over the top of it. The Doctor and Clara did the same, all three using them to observe the gathered crowd of diners.

"They look fine to me," Clara whispered. "They're just eating."

"Notice everything. Use your eyes," Adelaide reminded her.

Clara frowned at one in particular, someone eating soup...but not actually, just lifting and lowering a spoon. The room was full of people like that, jerkily repeating the same motions. "Okay, no. No, they're not eating."

"Something else they're not doing," the Doctor took one of his own hairs, dropping it straight down so that Clara could see it fall without wavering again. "Breathing."

 **A/N: Heard about the Stoics in my Latin class and my first thought was that Adelaide would definitely have wanted to join them :)**

 **Welcome to the sixth story in the series! This will certainly be an interesting ride :)**

 **As a refresher, I picture Adelaide's current regeneration to resemble Julianne Moore. She tends to favor dark pants, dark green/black tank-tops, dark green/black sweaters (though this may be changing shortly...), and black Oxfords. Her Polyvore set is viewable on my Tumblr, if you're curious.**

 **Thanks for coming over, and I hope you enjoy!**


	2. Masks

**Masks**

"What do we do?" Clara whispered.

"Well," the Doctor raised his eyebrows, "you don't want to eat, do you?"

"Hmm...slightly lost my appetite." She glanced at the crowd again. "How long before they notice that we're different?"

"Not long," Adelaide guessed.

"Anything we can do?"

"How long can you hold your breath?"

"We could just casually stroll out of here like we've changed our minds," Clara offered.

The Doctor nodded. "Happens all the time."

"Course it does." The three of them stood, but all of the other diners stood in unison. When they tried to take a step away from the table, the diners took a step towards them. "We could take another look at the menu." The entire room sat down again. "What are they?" Clara hissed to the Time Lords.

"We don't know," the Doctor shrugged. "But don't worry, because that's not the question. The question is...what is this restaurant?"

Clara nodded. "Okay, what is this restaurant."

"We don't know." The Doctor glanced down at the menu again, but a waiter walked over to them, clearly the same thing as the rest of the diners. "No sausages? Do you...and there's no pictures either. Do you have a children's menu?" The waiter held up his pencil, shining a green light from the end and scanning the Doctor since he was the one on the end. "Any specials?"

"Liver," the waiter said.

The Doctor made a face. "I don't like liver."

"Spleen. Brainstem. Eyes."

Clara grimaced. "Is there a lot of demand for those?"

"That's not what's on the menu," Adelaide said. "We are the menu."

"Lungs," the waiter continued. "Skin."

The Doctor stood. "Excuse me." He pulled off the waiter's face, revealing the metal beneath – clearly some type of a robot – and the small flame inside.

"Okay." Clara frowned. "Robot in a mask."

"It's a face," the Doctor said, looking at the mask he was holding.

"Yeah," Clara nodded, "it's very convincing."

The Doctor put it on Clara's face. "No, it's a face."

Clara's eyes widened as she realized what he meant, throwing it down. "Oh!"

"Yes," the waiter said.

"Yes, what?" Adelaide prompted.

"Yes, we have a children's menu."

Before any of them could move, metal bands shot out of the seat and wrapped around their arms and legs, trapping them in place. A second later, the bench started to lower. "You've got to admire their efficiency," the Doctor said, looking around.

"Is it okay if I don't?"

The bench landed with a thud into a large circular room, seeming to be made entirely of metal, with motionless people – likely robots – standing in alcoves. In the center of the room was a man sitting with his back towards them. "Hello?" the Doctor called. "Hello, are you the manager? I demand to speak to the manager."

Clara sighed. "This is not a real restaurant, is it?"

"First observation makes it an automated organ collection station for unknowing patrons," Adelaide said.

The Doctor nodded. "Sweeney Todd without the pies."

Clara struggled a bit in the restraints, looking around as she did so. "So where are we now?"

"Factually? An ancient spaceship, probably buried for centuries. Functionally? A larder."

That stilled Clara a bit. "So why hasn't somebody come for us?"

"We're alive," Adelaide said simply.

"We're alive in a larder?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Exactly. It's cheaper than freezing us."

"Okay." Clara shook her head.

The Doctor and Adelaide, without speaking about it, both attempted to reach something in their pockets, though somehow Adelaide reached it first. She angled her sonic pen at the Doctor and managed, after a bit more fiddling, to release his restraints. In quick succession, he used his own to free her and Clara. "You really should try sonic pens," Adelaide hissed, the three standing. "Much thinner."

"What's wrong with the screwdriver?" he frowned. "Is this like the bowtie where you think it's cool but you don't actually like it?"

Adelaide and Clara just stepped up to one of the closest robots. "Dormant," Adelaide mumbled.

"How do you know?"

"A hopeful guess." The two women stepped back, meeting up with the Doctor again.

"So, is it these guys that killed the dinosaur?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, if they're harvesting organs, a dinosaur would have some great stuff."

"Why would robots need organs? Burke and Hare from space?"

"No," he pointed at her, "but that's a good theory. Droids harvesting spare parts." He frowned. "That rings a bell."

"This time I have no idea," Adelaide shrugged when the Doctor looked at her. She'd encountered organ harvesters and robots, but never the two combined.

The Doctor glanced over at the man sitting in the middle of the room, whom they could now see had only half of his face covered in a 'mask'. "Captain, my captain."

Clara stepped closer to the Time Lords. "Can he see us?"

"Dormant," Adelaide said, the Doctor stepping up to study the robot closer.

"Hoping?"

"Yes."

"Oh, look," the Doctor nodded to the wire extending out of the man. "He's recharging. He's asleep. Doesn't even know we're here."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure. Not sure. One or the other."

Clara sighed. "Okay. So, half-man, half-robot. A cyborg, yeah."

"Hands," Adelaide said, nodding to them.

"What about them?"

"Look at them," the Doctor prompted.

"I'm looking!"

"They don't match," Adelaide cut in, reminded of the Time Lords time with House. "The hands do not belong to the same body."

Clara frowned. "I don't understand."

"Well, I don't blame you," the Doctor shrugged. "See this, this is not your normal cyborg. This isn't a man turning himself into a robot. This is a robot turning himself to a man, piece by piece."

Clara nodded. "That's what the restaurant's for."

"Well, it would need a constant supply of spare parts. You can tan skin, but organs rot." He peered closer at the metal on the robot. "Some of that metalwork looks Roman. Wonder how long it's been around, how much of the original is even left." He leaned closer. "The eyeballs look very fresh, though."

The robot jerked its arms, making the group jump back. There was the sound of clockwork moving. "Is it awake?" Clara hissed.

"It's waking up," Adelaide reasoned. "We should leave."

The trio backed up, slowly moving to go through the door behind them. Clara and Adelaide got a bit of the way into the corridor, but the Doctor turned to look back at the original room, frowning at it. "I've seen this before. I'm missing something..."

The two women paused. "Doctor," Adelaide hissed.

"It's the brand new head, rebooting."

"Come on," Clara ran back to grab the Doctor.

"I've seen this before."

The human shoved him towards the door and Adelaide. "Oh, hurry up. Get out." She'd just managed to shove him through the doorway when the robot lifted a hand, making the door shut between them. "Doctor," Clara said as the Doctor started to attempt to sonic the door, Adelaide joining in. "Quickly." They could only manage to open the door a short way, not nearly enough for Clara to slide through.

The robot began to stand and the Doctor, shaking his head, took Adelaide's hand. "Sorry, too slow. There's no point in them catching us all."

"Well, give me a sonic."

But not even Adelaide moved. "Sorry, Clara." She and the Doctor stepped back, vanishing down the corridor.

"Doctor?" Clara hissed, looking for him. "Adelaide?" Behind her, she could hear the robot standing, moving over to where the three of them had arrived. She rushed to an empty alcove as it began to search for them, standing as still as she possibly could. Other of the robots started to move too, looking at her, but the half-face man came directly for her.

She stopped breathing.

The robots started to move towards the doorway and Clara forced herself to imitate their way of walking, moving as quickly as she dared after where the Time Lords had gone, hoping that she'd find some empty corridor because she really, really needed to breathe.

But it was lined with robots, extending as far as she could see.

And Clara couldn't hold her breath anymore.

She fell to her knees, breathing deeply, and felt her vision go blurry.

"Bring her," the robot's voice was faded, and Clara could vaguely feel people lifting and carrying her.

She remembered Coal Hill, remembered the first day, remembered the students who refused to do as she said. Remembered that push just to do it, just to prove them wrong, to prove she was strong and smart and worth their respect.

She woke up on the floor, lying in front of the half-face man in the main room again. "Where are the other ones?" the man asked, seated again. "There were others. Where are they? Where are the others? You will tell us, or you will be destroyed."

"What did you say?"

"You will tell us."

"Yeah, I know." Clara nodded. "Or what?"

"You will die."

Clara forced herself to stand. "Go on, then. Do it. I'm not going to answer any of your questions, so you have to do it. You have to kill me. Threats don't work unless you deliver."

"You will tell us where the other ones are."

She shook her head. "Nope."

"You will be destroyed."

"Destroy me, then. And if you don't, then I'm not going to believe a single threat you make from now on. Of course, if I'm dead, then I can't tell you where the other ones went then. You need to keep this place down here a secret, don't you?" She shrugged. "Never start with your final sanction. You've got nowhere to go but backwards."

Before the half-face man spoke each time, she could hear the whirring of his clockwork. "Humans feel pain."

"Bigger threat to smaller threat. See what I mean? Backwards."

"The information can be extracted by means of your suffering."

She frowned. "Are you trying to scare me? Well, cos I'm already bloody terrified of dying. And I'll endure a lot of pain for a very long time before I give up the information that's keeping me alive. How long have you got?" The half-face man stood. "All you can offer me is my life. What you can't do is threaten it. You can negotiate." The robot removed his right hand, attaching it to his jacket. "Okay, okay, okay, okay, yes, yes, yes, I'm crying and it's just because I am very frightened of you. If you know anything about human beings, that means you...you're in a lot of trouble."

A flamethrower burst out of the robot's wrist and he pointed it at her. "We will not negotiate."

"You don't have a choice. I tell you what. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."

"We will not answer questions."

"We'll take turns. I'll go first. Why did you kill the dinosaur?"

"We will not answer questions."

"Why'd you kill the dinosaur?"

"We will not answer questions!"

"Then you might as well kill me," Clara nodded, "because I'm not talking again till you do."

The clockwork extended for a few seconds longer than normal and then the half-face man lowered the flamethrower. "Within the optic nerve of the dinosaur is a material of use to our computer systems."

She raised her eyebrows. "You burned a whole dinosaur for a spare part?" Then she paused, thinking it through. "No, no, hang on. You know what's in a dinosaur's optic nerve, which means you've seen them before."

"Where are the other ones?"

"How long have you been rebuilding yourselves? Look at the state of you." She looked him up and down. "Is there any real you left? What's the point?"

The half-face man looked down. "We will reach the promised land."

"The what?" she frowned. "The promised land? What's that?"

"Where are the other ones?"

"I don't know. But I know where they will be. Where they will always be. If the Doctor is still the Doctor and Adelaide is Adelaide, they will have my back." She reached out behind her, reaching for either Time Lord, wishing she was right. "I'm right, aren't I? Go on. Please, please, go on, say I'm right."

She nearly gasped when someone grabbed her hand, pulling her behind them. It was the Doctor, with Adelaide by his side. "Ah," the Doctor grinned. "Hello, hello, rubbish robots from the dawn of time! Thank you for all the gratuitous information. Five foot one and crying," he pointed at Clara, finishing his lap around the room. "You never stood a chance. Stop it." He pushed the half-face man's arm down, sticking his sonic in the outlet and making the lights go out. "This is your power source. And feeble though it is, I can use it to blow this whole room if I see one thing I don't like. And that includes karaoke and mime, so take no chances."

Adelaide moved over to stand by the Doctor again. "For the record, Clara, you are quite impressive when running on adrenaline."

"And you" the Doctor pointed at the half-face man "were out of your depth, sir. Never try and control a control freak. Trust me, I know."

"I am not a control freak," Adelaide and Clara said in unison, though Clara said it a bit snappier.

The Doctor just raised his eyebrows. "Yes, ma'ams."

"Why are you here?" the half-face man sneered at the Time Lords.

"Why did you invite us? The message, in the paper. That was you, wasn't it?" his eyes widened, glancing at Adelaide before snatching his sonic back. "I hate being wrong in public."

"And yet it happens so often," Adelaide mumbled. "Clara, what word did they give you?"

"What?"

"They would never send you here without a word."

Clara shook her head. "I don't want to say it."

The Doctor grinned. "We've guessed it already." Clara touched the top button on her dress, making it glow blue. "Geronimo," the pair of them said in unison.

Vastra and Jenny dropped from the ceiling via long pieces of fabric, pulling out their swords as their landed. "Remain still," Vastra ordered, "and lay down your weapons in the name of the British Empire!" With that, Strax fell from the ceiling, landing flat on his face. "Strax!"

"Sorry," he mumbled, pushing himself up.

"I've told you before," Jenny told him. "Take the stairs."

"Oh, look," the Doctor grinned. "The cavalry."

"I burned an ancient, beautiful creature for one inch of optic nerve," the half-face man sneered, advancing on the Doctor. "What do you think you can accomplish, little man?"

"What do you? Vastra?"

Vastra stepped between them and the robot, forcing him back with her sword. "The establishment upstairs has been disabled with maximum prejudice, and the authorities summoned."

"Hang on," Clara frowned, "she called the police? We never do that. We should start."

"Though perhaps stay away from outer-space police," Adelaide mumbled, though she didn't disagree with Clara.

"You see?" the Doctor ignored both of them. "Destroy us if you will, they're still going to close your restaurant." He frowned. "That was going to sound better."

"Then we will destroy you!" the other robots activated, stepping out of their alcoves with weapons of their own.

"No, you won't," Adelaide tried. "You're logical, you have restraint. You killed to survive. You're not a murderer."

"He's not a what?" Clara shook her head. "This is a slaughterhouse."

"And how does that make it different from any other restaurant?" the Doctor shrugged. "You weren't vegetarian the last time I checked."

Adelaide held a hand up to the half-faced man. "This is over. Why would you kill us?"

"To find the promised land."

The Doctor scoffed. "You're millions of years old. It's time you knew, there isn't one."

"I am in search of paradise."

"Yeah, well, me too." The Doctor nodded. "I'm not going to make it either."

The half-face man made to strike the Doctor, but Adelaide pulled him back just in time. That didn't seem to stop the man, as he just turned and made his way over to the booth they'd descended in. "I will leave in the escape capsule. Destroy where necessary."

"Escape capsule?" Vastra frowned. "This ship is millions of years old. It'll never fly."

"It has been repaired."

"With what?"

"You."

"Defensive positions, everyone!" Strax ordered. The trio surrounded the time travelers, protecting them as the robots encircled them all.

"Doctor!" Clara called, pointing. "He's getting away!"

The Time Lords, using their sonics, managed to force a hole through the robots, darting through them towards the booth the half-face man was in, the man rising already.

"Your friends are intelligent," the robot said. "They'll know better than to follow me."

The Time Lords just managed to grab onto the bottom of the bench before it got too high for them.

|C-S|

The half-face man encountered some policemen when he arrived, but he managed to get them to leave the restaurant empty. The Time Lords, once they were certain the man had moved away, climbed up via a hatch they'd discovered in the bottom. The half-face man didn't seem to notice their arrival until the Doctor made a sound while he poured two glasses of whiskey.

"What are you doing?"

"I've got the horrible feeling we're going to have to kill you," the Doctor said. "We thought you might appreciate a drink first. I know I would." The half-face man flicked a lever on his control panel, making a grinding sound. "Fifty-first century, right?"

"Time traveling spaceship crashed in the past," Adelaide said. "Attempting to get home."

"I go to the promised land," the half-face man told them.

"So you keep saying." The Doctor knocked back his drink. "Okay, so your restaurant is made out of your old ship. But you're wasting your time. It can't ever fly." He picked up a flower from the table, messing with it.

"The escape pod is viable."

"How?" the Doctor frowned. "You can't patch up a spaceship with human remains." He paused. "You know, this really is ringing a bell." The entire room started to shake as it actually worked. "Okay, that's clever. How are you powering it?"

"Skin." The room shook even more and, when the Time Lords looked out the window, they could see they were now flying.

The Doctor, looking around the room, spotted a fuse box. He stepped over, pulling one out. "SS Marie Antoinette," he muttered. "Out of control repair droids cannibalizing human beings. I know this is familiar, but I just can't seem to place it."

"How would you kill me?"

"Sister ship of the Madame De Pompadour," the Doctor read, seemingly a bit distracted. "No, not getting it." He smelled the flower he'd found.

"How would you kill me?"

"Why don't you have a drink first?" Adelaide offered, nodding at the single one still beside her. "It's human."

"I am not human."

"Neither are we." Adelaide stepped backward until she was looking down through the doorway, seeing where they were floating above. The Doctor joined her. "What do you think of the view?" Adelaide asked, considering it herself. They were flying over a cathedral.

"I do not think of it."

"I don't think of it," the Doctor corrected. "I don't. Droids and apostrophes," he shook his head, "I could write a book." He considered the man again. "Except you are barely a droid anymore. There's more human in you than machine. So, tell us, what do you think of the view?"

The half-faced man, after a moment of thought, joined them in the doorway as they approached Westminster. "It is beautiful."

"No, it isn't. It's just far away. Everything looks too small. I prefer it down there." The Doctor nodded at it. "Everything is huge. Everything is so important. Every detail, every moment, ever life clung to."

"How could you kill me?" the half-face man asked again.

"For the same reason you're asking that question," Adelaide said quietly. "Because you don't really want to carry on."

They were all quiet for a moment. "What'll happen to the other droids when you die?" the Doctor asked. "You're the control node, aren't you? Presumably they'll deactivate."

"I will not die," the half-face man insisted. "I will reach the promised land."

"There isn't any promised land. This is just...it's a superstition that you have picked up from all the humanity you've stuffed inside yourself."

"I am not dead."

"You are a broom," the Doctor told him. "Question. You take a broom, you replace the handle, and then later you replace the brush, and you do that over and over again. Is it still the same broom? Answer: no, of course, it isn't. But you can still sweep the floor." The Doctor frowned. "Which is not strictly relevant, skip that last part. You've replaced every piece of yourself, mechanical and organic, time and time again. There's not a trace of the original you left. You probably can't even remember where you got that face from." He held up a silver plate, letting the half-face man see his reflection.

The robot took it, studying himself, before dropping it. "It cannot end."

"It has to," Adelaide told him. "You know it does. And there's only one way out." She nodded towards the doorway they were standing at.

"Self-destruction is against my basic program."

"And murder is against mine."

Adelaide said nothing.

The men, staring at each other, surged together. Adelaide just managed to step out of the way before she was dragged into the conflict. They fought together, both attempting to throw the other out of the doorway, until the Doctor managed to get the half-face man trapped against one of the sides. "You are stronger than you look."

"And I'm hoping you are too. This is over. Are you capable of admitting that?"

"Do you have it in you to murder me?" the half-face man sneered.

"Those people down there...they're never small to me. Don't make assumptions about how far I will go to protect them, because I've already come a very long way. And, unlike you, I don't expect to reach the promised land." After a second, the two men released each other, moving to opposite sides of the doorway.

"You realize," Adelaide said, standing between them, the three forming a small triangle, "one of you is lying about your basic programming."

"Yes," the half-face man said.

"And we all know who that is."

|C-S|

Adelaide was the only one standing by the console when Clara stepped into the TARDIS, the ship finally having finished repairing itself after the rather nasty crash into Victorian London. The Doctor, meanwhile, was reclining in a new chair at an upper level of the console.

"You've redecorated," Clara commented.

"Yes," Adelaide nodded.

"I don't like it."

The Doctor shrugged. "Not completely entirely convinced myself. I think there should be more round things on the walls. I used to have lots of round things. I wonder where I put them." He stood, making his way down to join Clara and Adelaide, though he was looking at the human specifically. "I'm the Doctor. I've lived for over two thousand years, and not all of them were good. I've made many mistakes, and it's about time that I did something about that." He glanced at Adelaide then.

"Do you expect me to give a similar introduction?" Adelaide said, raising her eyebrows. The pair of them, after the Doctor had changed and she'd found a jacket – for she'd quite liked having the long Victorian coat, though this one was looked a bit closer to a leather one like Clara fancied - looked quite the pair again. They were both in dark colors, with her in dark green and black and him dark blue and red. "Are you alright, Clara?"

The human nodded, but Adelaide didn't seem to fully believe her. The Doctor, however, set the TARDIS flying. "What do you think?"

Clara, after looking the Doctor up and down, pulled Adelaide's sonic - the woman had dropped it at some point - from her pocket, messing with it before handing it to her. "Who put that advert in the paper?"

"Who gave you our number? A long time ago, remember? You were given the number of a computer helpline, and you ended up phoning the TARDIS – not Adelaide's, who's number we normally give. Who gave you that number?"

Clara shrugged. "The woman. The woman in the shop."

"Then there's a woman out there who's very keen that we stay together." The TARDIS landed with a jolt. "How do you feel on the subject?"

"Am I home?"

"If you want to be." Clara's mobile rang. "You'd better get that."

Clara frowned, but did as he recommended, seeing the number as Adelaide's but the woman, who was holding her phone so that Clara could see, was clearly not calling. "Hello?"

"It's me." Clara jumped slightly at the sound of the previous Doctor's voice. "I'm phoning you from Trenzalore."

She shook her head. "I don't..."

"From before I changed. I mean it's all still to happen for me. It's coming. Oh, it's a-coming. Not long now. I can...feel it."

"Why? Why would you do this?"

"Because I think it's going to be a whopper, and I think you might be scared, and I honestly don't know how much Adelaide will be able to help you."

"She did help," Clara said, making Adelaide smile.

"Good. So...what am I like? Please tell me I didn't get old. Anything but old. I was young...oh..." he groaned "is he grey?"

"Yes."

"Oh...why does Adelaide get to be ginger and I have to be grey?"

"Because she's better?" Clara laughed, making the past Doctor laugh too.

"Hey, Clara, please, for me, help him. Help her. Go on, and don't be afraid. Goodbye, Clara. Miss ya."

Clara waited a bit before lowering the phone, looking at the two Time Lords. And then she smiled. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Phoning." Clara stepped forward, giving the Doctor a tight hug.

The man, however, looked a bit uncomfortable. "I...I don't think I'm a hugging person now."

Clara didn't step away. "I'm not sure you get a vote."

"Whatever you say."

Adelaide stepped past the pair of them, opening the TARDIS and glancing out. "I'm fairly certain this isn't where Clara lives, in case anyone's interested."

The pair stepped apart, joining Adelaide outside of the TARDIS. "Sorry," the Doctor said, looking around. "Sorry about that. We missed."

"Where are we?"

"Glasgow, I think."

"Ah," Clara nodded. "You'll fit right in." She put on the Doctor's new accent for a second. "Scottish."

"Right," the Doctor nodded, stepping closer to Adelaide again but not putting an arm around her. "Shall we...er...do you want to go and get some coffee, or chips, or something? Or chips and coffee?"

Clara smiled. "Coffee. Coffee would be great." She started to walk backward down the road. "You're buying!"

"We don't have any money."

"You're fetching, then."

"I'm not sure that I'm the fetching sort."

Clara just shrugged. "Yeah, still not sure you get a vote." She turned and kept walking but, before the Time Lords followed her, the Doctor looked at Adelaide.

"Do you really like it?"

"Your face?" He nodded. "We're Time Lords, Doctor. The outside doesn't really matter. The inside is what we focus on." She stepped closer, taking his hand. "May I just say, I'm very glad you're not a hugging person this regeneration. We'll fit better now."

He grinned and, somewhere out in the Universe, the stars sang.

|C-S|

The half-face man woke on the patio of a lush garden. There was a woman, dark-haired and Victorian-garbed, sitting on the edge of the fountain in the center. "Hello," she said, standing and making her way over to the chair beside the man. "I'm Missy. You made it. I hope my friends weren't too mean to you."

"Friends?"

"Now, did he push you out of that thing, or did you fall? Couldn't really tell. He can be very mean sometimes – so can she, so I've heard...those are some stories. Except," Missy smiled, "to me, of course, because he loves me so much. I do like his new accent, though," she considered it. "Think I might keep it."

The half-face man looked around him. "Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are? Look around you. You made it. The Promised Land. Paradise!" She stood, dancing around the fountain, spinning with her arms out wide. "Welcome to Heaven!"

 **A/N: Wonder what some of those stories about Adelaide could be...**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _TheBlueRiver: I always get emotional whenever I think about a Doctor leaving. And glad you like the first chapter ;)_

 _gossamermouse101: Goodbye, Raggedy Man_

 _primus light bringer: These two will certainly have an interesting time with this new regeneration, especially in regards to what his new face represents...;)_


	3. Prove Them Wrong

**Prove Them Wrong**

The Time Lords, rather quickly, had reached a point of equilibrium inside the TARDIS. The Doctor, having newly discovered a talent for playing the guitar, strummed away to himself at various points while Adelaide found her own hiding places to read in peace. Sometimes, they ended up in the same room, him composing songs based on random sentences she read him – including the ones that just listed the qualifications of various Earthen stones.

This new Doctor, much like this new Adelaide, was less into the contact form of closeness. They still liked to sit near each other, but they didn't need to be in each other's arms. Granted, the previous Doctor hadn't needed that either, but his constant arm-over-her-shoulders made it seem that way. Really, they had always been more comfortable just being in each other's presence over cuddling...not to say they didn't end up cuddling some days, particularly when one of them fell asleep.

Adelaide had discovered newfound enjoyment in tracing the veins on the Doctor's hand, while the Time Lord liked to count her freckles. They did the activities in silence unless the Doctor wanted her opinion on if her freckles made the shape of a constellation or if she was wondering if his veins resembled a particular plant's roots.

But after centuries alone together on Christmas, the most important thing seemed to be that they knew the other was safe...especially when they were on an adventure, which they spent quite a bit of time on.

It had taken some time before Adelaide had returned to how she'd been before in terms of her temper, as she'd had centuries of saved up adventuring to use up.

The Doctor had, of course, attempted to keep her slightly-more-rude qualities for as long as possible because she was less likely to scold him, but his efforts were for naught.

Adelaide was Adelaide, just like the Doctor was the Doctor.

They were each just different now, though she hadn't regenerated.

And different was okay.

Different was good.

|C-S|

Adelaide stepped into the console, having just woken up from a quick nap. The Time Lords still had separate bedrooms, though that didn't mean that some nights they didn't end up in the same room. But she would never have expected what appeared in the console just as she entered...a human, pointing a gun at the Doctor.

"You'll probably feel a bit sick," the Doctor said, working on the console. "Please, don't be. Adelaide doesn't like sick."

"Where did you get that impression?" Adelaide called, making him spin.

"Sick is messy?"

"I mean, you are right. I was just surprised you knew that." Adelaide studied the human who'd appeared, who still looked incredibly terrified. "Who is this?"

"Where's my brother?" the woman asked them.

"Hello," the Time Lord grinned, "I'm the Doctor, this is Adelaide."

"He was right beside me. Where's Kai? How did I get here?" the woman looked around the ship.

"I materialized a time capsule exactly round you and saved your life one second before your ship exploded, but do please keep crying."

"Doctor," Adelaide said sharply.

The woman shook her head. "My brother's just died."

"His sister didn't. You're very welcome. Put the gun down." The Doctor made a lowering gesture.

"Or what?"

"Or you might shoot me, or Adelaide, and likely both. Then where will you be?"

The woman shrugged. "In charge of your vessel."

"You'd starve to death trying to find the light switch."

Adelaide shook her head. "What is your name?"

"I'm Lieutenant Journey Blue of the Combined Galactic Resistance. I demand you take me back to my ship, the Aristotle, which is currently located..."

"No." The Doctor frowned. "Hey, not like that."

"You will take me back to my command ship, which is currently positioned..."

"No, no, come on," the Doctor prompted. "Not like that, not like that. Get it right."

Journey clenched her jaw, but she lowered her gun. "Will you take me back to my ship? Please?"

"A note," the Doctor said, "be polite. Adelaide doesn't like it when you're not polite, and you want Adelaide to like you."

Adelaide just shook her head, moving to the console. "The Aristotle is the ship in the asteroid belt, yes?"

Journey nodded. "It's shielded."

The Doctor shrugged. "More or less." They brought the TARDIS down rather quickly and it was Journey who moved to open the door. "Dry your eyes, Journey Blue," the Doctor called. "Crying's for civilians. It's how we communicate with you lot."

The woman was the first one out, though the Time Lords joined her quite quickly. They'd landed in the corner of a large hangar which shocked Journey enough until she noticed their ship. "It's smaller on the outside."

The Doctor shook his head. "It's a bit more exciting when you go the other way." He looked around the hanger. "This isn't a battleship. Medical insignia," he pointed. "It's a hospital."

An older man, surrounded by soldiers, walked up to the trio. "We don't need hospitals now. The Daleks don't leave any wounded, and we don't take any prisoners."

"I saved your little friend here if that's in any way relevant to mention."

Journey nodded. "That's true, sir. He did."

The man nodded to the Doctor. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I wish I could've done more."

"Then you should have."

The Doctor blinked. "Okay."

"But you did save Journey, and for that, I am personally grateful."

He shrugged. "Well..."

"However, the security of this base is absolute. So we're still going to kill you."

The Doctor frowned at him. "Oh, it's a roller coaster with you, isn't it?"

"Shoot them, bag them, and throw them outside." The man moved to walk away, the soldiers stepping forward, but Journey stepped forward.

"No! Stop!"

"I'm sorry," the man told her. "They might be duplicates."

"He's a doctor," she nodded at the Doctor. "And we have a patient, don't we, Uncle?"

|C-S|

The Time Lords followed the man and Journey through the ship. "Why does a hospital need a doctor?" the Doctor wondered out loud.

"The Aristotle wasn't always hidden. The Daleks got here before us."

Journey glanced back at the Time Lords, who both looked rather uncomfortable with the number of weapons and soldiers around them. "You don't like soldiers much, do you?"

"You don't need to be liked," the Doctor told her. "You've got all the guns."

They entered a sort of laboratory, guarded by even more soldiers. Adelaide raised her eyebrows at the machine inside. "A moleculon nanoscaler?"

Journey glanced at her. "You know what it does, then?"

"It miniaturizes living matter," Adelaide nodded.

"What's the medical application, though?" the Doctor frowned. "Do you use it to shrink the surgeons so they can climb inside the patients?"

The man nodded. "Exactly."

"Fantastic idea for a movie. Terrible idea for a proctologist. Are you going to miniaturize us?"

"You're a doctor, aren't you?" the man asked the Doctor, before opening a set of doors at the back of the room. "And this is your patient."

A Dalek.

The Doctor froze, grabbing Adelaide's hand. "No, you don't understand. You can't put us in there."

The Dalek began to move, hearing the voice. "Doctor...Doctor."

The Time Lord frowned. "How do you know who I am?"

"He doesn't," the man said. "We promised him medical assistance."

"Are you my doctor?" the Dalek said, proving him correct.

"We found it floating in space," Journey continued.

"We thought it was deactivated, so we tried to disassemble it."

Adelaide nodded. "And you didn't realize there was a living creature inside."

"Not till it started screaming."

"Help me..." the Dalek said.

The Doctor stepped forward. "Why would we do that? Why would any living creature help you?"

"Daleks will die."

He shook his head. "Die all you like. Not my problem."

"Daleks must be destroyed."

"Daleks must be de..." the Doctor paused, the Dalek's words hitting him. "What did you just say?"

"All Daleks must die," the Dalek said. "I will destroy the Daleks. Destroy the Daleks! Destroy the Daleks!"

The Time Lords glanced at each other. This...this was not what they'd expected.

|C-S|

Clara had just stepped into the supply cupboard when she almost collided with the tray of coffees that the Doctor was holding out. Once she'd stumbled back, she could see that the Time Lords had managed to fit the TARDIS perfectly into the back of the cupboard, with Adelaide standing in the doorway looking like she'd just been cut off speaking by Clara's arrival.

"Where the hell have you been?" she asked both of them, crossing her arms.

"You sent us for coffee." The Doctor gestured at what he was holding.

"Three weeks ago. In Glasgow."

Both Time Lords' eyes widened. They knew that, in their timeline, they'd spent a few weeks in the TARDIS adventuring just to get used to each other, but they'd been aiming to be a bit closer to when they'd left Clara...which Adelaide hadn't been that happy about in the first place. "Three weeks...that's a long time."

Clara nodded. "In Glasgow. That's dead in a ditch."

"It's not our fault," the Doctor shrugged, "we got distracted."

"By what?"

"Come and see," Adelaide gestured for them all to step back into the TARDIS.

The Doctor glanced at Clara as he walked up to the console. "Why were you smiling?"

"Was I? No, I wasn't."

"You were smiling at nothing." He shrugged. "I'd almost say you were in love, but to be honest..."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Honest?"

"You're not a young woman anymore."

"Yes, I am." Clara took the coffees from him, putting them on the console.

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, you don't look it."

"I do look it." She leaned to look at Adelaide. "Do I look it?"

"You're still quite youthful, Clara, no need to worry," Adelaide told her, shaking her head at the Doctor as she did so.

The Doctor leaned back against the console. "Clara...I need something from you. I need the truth."

She frowned. "Why not ask Adelaide?"

"I've already given my opinion. And it's always best to get multiple."

Clara nodded. "Okay. Right, what is it?" The Doctor sat on the console steps, Clara coming to join him. Adelaide leaned on the console behind them, watching. "What's...you're scared."

"I'm terrified."

"Of what?"

"The answer to my next question, which must be honest and cold and considered, without kindness or restraint." Adelaide nodded behind him. "Clara, be my pal and tell me...am I a good man?"

Clara was quiet for a moment, because this was a new Doctor, a new man, and no matter what Adelaide had told her...he was different. Adelaide was different too, after so long on Christmas, even if she hadn't regenerated. People changed. Good men became bad, bad became good. "I don't know."

The Doctor shook his head. "Neither do I." He stood, joining Adelaide at the console as they both began to work on piloting the TARDIS.

"Er...hey, no offense," Clara said, standing, "but I've got plans."

"We are sorry," Adelaide said, "but we need you. Both of us."

Adelaide hadn't changed so much that she would just ask for help when she didn't really need it. Clara nodded. "Right. Where are we going?"

The Doctor pushed a lever. "Into darkness."

|C-S|

Clara took a sip of her coffee, the only one doing so, as Adelaide refused to give the Doctor caffeine and didn't like the taste herself. To be honest, Clara already found this combination of the Doctor and Adelaide cuter than the previous one, even if this was only the second time she'd actually seen them together.

The 11th Doctor and Adelaide had been cute because he constantly seemed to need to hold her hand and to wrap an arm around her when he wasn't. The man would just bounce around, excitable, and Adelaide would be slightly more restrained. They'd seemed like people who'd had crushes on each other but hadn't admitted it, always rotating around each other but trying to convince themselves they didn't need the other.

But this combination just seemed more...confident with each other. They didn't need to hold hands all the time, but they still drew together whenever they could. They looked at each other with a look in their eyes that Clara could only describe as love – which made her very pleased with herself.

Even if she hadn't really done anything to push the Time Lords together, she felt she could take some of the responsibility for what had happened between them...even if she hadn't been there for the centuries they'd been stuck together on Christmas that had no doubt lead to this connection.

"A good Dalek?" she asked, the Time Lords having just finished describing their discovery.

"There's no such thing," the Doctor pointed out and Adelaide made no attempt to contradict him.

Clara frowned at both of them. "That's a bit inflexible. Not like either of you. I'd almost say prejudiced."

"I believed in the Daleks once," Adelaide said. "Time Lords killed me for it in my third regeneration." Clara glanced at her. "I was traveling to see how Skaro was developing after their Thousand Year War and the Time Lords shot me down. Showed me actually what Daleks were." She sighed. "One of the few times I actually ended up agreeing with them."

"Do we pay you?" the Doctor asked, reaching across Adelaide to flick something on the console. "We should give you a raise." The TARDIS gave a bit of a jolt as it landed.

"You're not my bosses, you're one of my hobbies."

The Doctor grinned. "Come on." They stepped out of the TARDIS, Clara putting down her coffee before joining.

Journey eyed all of them. "That was quick."

"This is gun girl," the Doctor said, gesturing to Journey. "She's got a gun, and she's a girl."

"Journey Blue," Adelaide told Clara.

They hurried down the corridor to where the man, whose name was Morgan, was waiting for them. "This is a sort of boss one." The Doctor frowned at the man. "Are you the same as before?"

"Yes."

"I think he's probably her uncle," the Doctor shrugged, "but I may have made that up to pass the time while they were talking. This is Clara, not our assistant...maybe Adelaide's, actually, but most of the time she's...er...some other word."

"I'm his carer," Clara provided. "Her assistant." Vastra had called her their assistant once before and, honestly, while Clara didn't like to be the Doctor's she didn't mind being Adelaide's. Made it feel like the two of them were ganging up on dealing with the Doctor. Also, it made her feel a bit like a scientist.

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to." He pressed a button, opening the door to the Dalek's room.

"Doctor..." the Dalek said.

"Hello again."

"Will you help me?"

Clara glanced at the Time Lords. "Will you?"

"A Dalek that's been so damaged, it's turned good." Adelaide nodded. "Morality as malfunction. Tempting." And Clara had the distinct impression that the Time Lords had slightly different reasons for wanting to investigate the 'good' Dalek.

"Daleks must die," the Dalek added. "Daleks must die."

"So, what do we do with a moral Dalek, then?"

"We get into its head."

Clara nodded. "How do you get into a Dalek's head?"

"That wasn't a metaphor." The Doctor closed the door, stepping back to bring Clara to the moleculon nanoscaler, where Journey was waiting.

"These are nanocontrollers," she held out the bracelets, the Time Lords taking them. "Once we're miniaturized, they take over the molecular compression. When the mission's over, hit the button." She put it on Clara for her as the Time Lords stepped away, Morgan having wanted to give them more information. "Are you sure you understand?"

Clara frowned. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because this is a dangerous mission and you" she eyed Clara "look like a school teacher."

"I am a school teacher." Clara set her shoulders. "Adelaide said your name was Blue, right?"

Journey frowned. "Problem?"

"No. I just met a soldier called Pink."

Journey chuckled. "Lucky fella."

"Lucky."

"From the way you smile."

Clara glanced at the Time Lords, who didn't look as though they were coming over anytime soon as they climbed into the nanoscaler. "So...who makes you smile or is nobody up to the job?"

"My brother." Journey's face fell. "But he burned to death a couple of hours ago, so he's really letting me down today. Excuse me." She stepped back, leaving Clara to walk up to the entrance of the nanoscaler at the same time as two soldiers, who the Doctor was frowning at.

"What are those ones for? We don't need armed babysitters."

The woman soldier frowned. "We're not babysitters."

"We're here to shoot you dead if you turn out to be Dalek spies." They all took their seats inside the machine.

"Well, that's a relief," the Doctor nodded. "I hate baby-sitters."

Journey shook her head at him, climbing in as well. "Okay, listen up. Now, remember, do not hold your breath when the nanoscaler engages. You'll feel like you want to, but you must keep breathing normally during the miniaturization process."

"Why?" Clara frowned.

"Ever microwaved a lasagna without pricking the film on top?" the Doctor asked.

"It explodes."

"Don't be lasagna." Clara's eyes widened at that.

"Nanoscaler engaging in five...four..." Morgan said, starting up the machine "three...two...nanoscaler engaging now."

A bright light shone around them. "Nanoscaling in progress," the computer said. It felt as though something was squeezing their lungs, but it only lasted for a few seconds before it vanished with a bump. "Nanoscaling complete."

"Nanoscaling successful," Morgan called. "Everyone okay in there?"

The people outside used tweezers to pick up the capsule, lifting it closer to the Dalek's eyestalk. "We made it," Journey told him. "Nobody popped."

Clara looked out at the people, still normal-sized, out of the capsule. "Whoa...ha, I can't believe this."

"No," the Doctor said, his voice hard, "neither can I." And for one of the first times in this regeneration, the Time Lords grabbed each other's hands, squeezing tightly.

The capsule was injected into the eyepiece. "We'll be following you all the way, Rescue One. Good luck all of you."

The group exited the capsule, the Time Lords being the first ones to step up to the blue film that separated the interior of the Dalek from them. They pushed their way through into the small tunnel within. "Integration complete," the computer reported. "Dalek levels steady."

Clara glanced behind them. "That was weird."

The Doctor shook his head. "You've seen nothing yet."

Clara gestured at the pulses of lights on the sides of the tunnel. "What are the lights?"

"Visual impulses traveling towards the brain," Adelaide told her.

"Beautiful."

"Welcome to the most dangerous place in the universe." The group exited the stalk, finding themselves in a large open area that was clearly the main interior of the Dalek.

"Entering the cranial ledge now," Journey reported. "Here."

"Oh my God," Clara gasped, looking down into the Dalek and seeing the physical creature below. All of the cables surrounding them connected to the thing that could only be described as a flesh blob.

"Behold, the belly of the beast," the Doctor mumbled.

"It's amazing."

The male soldier frowned. "It's huge."

"No, Ross," the other said. "We're tiny."

"So how big is it, that living part, compared to us, right now?"

"You see all those cables?" the Doctor nodded to some of them.

"Yeah."

"They're not all cables."

Ross adjusted his gun. "Does it know we're here?"

Journey glanced at him. "It's what invited us in."

The Time Lords moved to a side corridor, finding what looked like banks of lights on the internal section of the ledge. "This is the cortex vault," Adelaide said. She remembered, in quite specific detail, the diagrams the Time Lords had given her about the interior aspects of the Daleks. "A supplementary electronic brain."

The Doctor nodded. "Memory banks, but more than that. This is what keeps the Dalek pure."

The female soldier frowned. "How are Daleks pure?"

"Dalek mutants are born hating." The Doctor glared at the memory banks. "This is what stokes the fire, extinguishes even the tiniest glimmer of kindness or compassion. Imagine the worse possible thing in the universe, then don't bother, because you're looking at it right now. This is evil refined as engineering."

"Doctor?" the Dalek called out.

"Oh, hello, Rusty," the Doctor looked up. "You don't mind if I call you Rusty? We're going to need to come down there with you. Medical examination, and all that."

"What," the female soldier made a face, "with those tentacles and things?"

"How close do we have to get?" Journey asked.

"Well, you know, we're never going to insert a thermometer from up here." Journey nodded to Ross and the man fired a harpoon into the ledge. "No!" the Doctor rushed forward. "No, no, no, no! Stop, stop, stop, you idiot!" he shot another harpoon.

"We need a way down, the only way..."

"This is a Dalek, not a machine," Adelaide told him. "It is a perfect representation of a living being, and you just harmed it. What's going to happen next?" she pointed at Clara.

The human's eyes widened. "Oh God..."

"What?" the female soldier frowned. "What is it?"

"Antibodies?"

Adelaide nodded. "Dalek antibodies."

Small round objects flew towards them, specifically around Ross. "Nobody move," the Doctor called, freezing himself. "Any attempt to help him, or attack those things, will identify you as a secondary source of infection. Stay still!"

"But the Dalek wants us in here. Why is it attacking?"

"You can't control antibodies," Adelaide reminded her.

"Ross, stay calm," Journey tried. "We're going to get you out of this."

Clara glanced at the Time Lords. "Can you?"

The pair glanced at each other before the Doctor pulled something from his pocket. "Ross, swallow that," he tossed it to the man.

"What is it?"

"Trust me."

Ross swallowed the something. "Now what?"

The antibodies hit Ross with a bright beam of light just as Journey called out, "Ross!". The man disintegrated.

 **A/N: An interesting episode for Adelaide. Morality as malfunction...**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _TheBlueRiver: Couldn't just have Adelaide there and not have her take the chance to explain to Clara what happened._

 _gossamermouse101: I remember squealing when she first appeared :)_


	4. Show Them Right

**Show Them Right**

"Oh my God," Clara made a face as the antibodies started to suck up the ashes. "What's it doing?"

"The hoovering," the Doctor said simply. The antibodies, once they'd finished, flew away and the Doctor pulled out his sonic, checking it. "Gotcha."

"What did you give him?"

"Oh, just a spare power cell," the Doctor shrugged, "but I can track the radiation signature. We need to know where they dump the bodies."

"I thought you were saving him," Journey said.

The Doctor shrugged. "He was dead already. I was saving us." He moved backward. "Follow us and run." The Time Lords took off running, hearing the others following and antibodies behind them. They followed the sonic, stopping quickly when they found a hole. "They've dumped him in here. Organic refuse disposal. We need to get in there."

Clara frowned. "Why?"

The soldiers attempted to shoot at the antibodies, though it wasn't that effective. "Those antibodies won't give up until we're inside there," the Doctor told them, pointing at the hole. "I'd rather go in alive than dead."

Journey glanced back at them. "You don't know where it goes."

"Yes, we do. Away from here. Now in. In! In!"

Clara was the first to jump inside, Journey following her quickly. "I can hold them off," the female soldier said, the two Time Lords moving towards the hole.

"No, you can't. Pull back," the Doctor stepped forward, grabbing the woman's arm and pushing her down the hole. "Down." The Doctor was the last one into the hole, forcing Adelaide to jump down before him.

She was distinctly reminded of Starship UK with the sewers and high levels of disgusting liquid when she landed.

"Urgh," Clara grimaced, looking regretful. "What is this stuff?"

"People," Adelaide said. "Daleks need protein and, sometimes, they harvest it from their victims. This" she nodded to the tunnel "is a feeding tube."

Journey looked into the liquid. "Is Ross here?"

"Yeah, top layer, if you want to say a few words."

Journey pushed the Doctor against a wall at that, sneering. "A man has just died. You will not talk like that."

"A lot of people have died," he reminded her. "Everything in here is dead, and do you know why that's good?"

"There is nothing good about that."

"Nothing is alive in here," Adelaide said, "so logically this is the weakest point in the Dalek's internal security."

The Doctor nodded. "Nobody guards the dead. Mortuaries and larders, always the easiest to break out of. Oh, I've lived a life," he shook his head at that. "Tell Uncle Stupid that we're in," he told Journey, the woman finally stepping back. Adelaide gestured the group over to the decontamination tubes. The Doctor, joining her, pointed at something in the wall. "Bolt hole." He soniced it, making it turn.

Clara glanced at the two other women. "They'll get us out of here. The difficult part is not killing him before he can."

He frowned at the hole. "Bolthole. Actually, a hole for a bolt." He paused when no one laughed. "Does nobody get that?"

Clara sighed. "Also, there's the puns."

"Watch it," the Doctor gestured for them to join the Time Lords, "decontamination tubes are hot."

"Rescue One to Mission Control," Journey called to Morgan as she followed Clara and the other soldier. "The Dalek has an international defense mechanism. We've lost Ross." She listened to his reply. "Yeah, well, who knows? It's a Dalek. We're going to continue the mission."

"Are you all right back there?" the Doctor called, the whole group starting to crawl through the tunnel. "It's a bit narrow, isn't it?"

"Any remarks about my hips will not be appreciated," Clara sighed.

"Your hips are fine. You're built like a man."

Clara shook her head. "Thanks." Adelaide just sighed.

After a bit more crawling, they reached the end and the Time Lords helped Clara out of the tunnel. As the female soldier reached them, there was a strange static sound. "What's that noise?" the Doctor frowned at her. "Are you wearing a Geiger counter?"

She gestured to her armor. "Standard battle equipment. That's just low-level radiation."

"But stronger down here, for some reason." The Doctor held out a hand. "Gimme." He glanced at Adelaide. "Please." The soldier passed it over after a nod from Journey. The Time Lord began to use it to sweep the circuit boards on the sides of the room.

"It's hard to say," Journey said, speaking to her uncle. "He's..."

"I've got it!" the Doctor called, turning to Adelaide. "I know what's wrong with Rusty."

Clara nodded. "Okay, that's good. Is that good?"

"Well, you know how I said this was the most dangerous place in the Universe?" Clara nodded. "I was wrong. It's way more dangerous than that." He held up the counter, showing the quickly changing radiation levels.

"Colonel, we have radiation indicators red-lining in here," Journey told her uncle. "Could be that the Dalek is more badly damaged than we thought."

"Old Rusty here is suffering a trionic radiation leak," the Doctor looked around the room again. "It's poisoning the Dalek and us. Just as well we're here."

Journey frowned. "Really? Perhaps we should get out while we can. Why should we trust a Dalek? Why would it change?"

"Good question," Adelaide nodded. "Rusty? What changed you?"

"I saw beauty."

The Time Lords glanced at each other. "You saw what?"

"In the silence and the cold, I saw worlds burning."

Journey shook her head. "That's not beauty, that's destruction."

"I saw more."

"What?" the Doctor asked. "What did you see?"

"The birth of a star."

The Time Lord shrugged. "Stars are born every day. You've seen a million stars born. So what?"

"Daleks have destroyed a million stars."

"Oh, millions and millions. Trust me, I keep count."

"And yet, new stars are born."

Adelaide nodded. "All of the time."

"Resistance is futile."

"Resistance to what?"

"Life returns," Rusty said. "Life prevails. Resistance is futile."

The Doctor frowned, nodding. "So you saw a star being born, and you learned something. Oh, Dalek, do not be lying to me." He turned to the women. "Come on."

|C-S|

The group stopped in the Trionic power cells, which was directly underneath the Dalek mutant. "We're at the heart of the Dalek," the Doctor mumbled.

"It's incredible," Clara breathed, watching energy arc above them.

Journey glanced at the counter in the Doctor's hand. "Geiger counter's off the scale. Looks like it's about to blow."

"Good."

"How is that good?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, I like a bit of pressure." He looked up to the Dalek. "Rusty, can you hear me?"

"Doctor?"

"Rusty, we've found the damage. We're sealing up the breach in your power cell." Adelaide stepped over to the large crack, using her sonic to weld it back together. "No more radiation poisoning. Good as new. There. Job done."

Clara frowned. "That's it? Just like that?"

"An anti-climax once in a while is good for my hearts." The Doctor shrugged. "Rusty? How do you feel?" but the Dalek said nothing. "Rusty? Rusty? Rusty?"

"The malfunction is corrected," the Dalek said.

Journey frowned. "What's happened?"

The lights around them started to brighten. "Not entirely sure."

"It's like it's waking up."

"Rusty, come on, talk to me. What's going on?"

"The malfunction is corrected. All systems are functioning. Weapons charged."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh, no, no, no!"

The room around them started to shape. "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"No, no, no!"

"Exterminate! Exterminate! The Daleks will be victorious. The rebels will be exterminated!"

"Colonel?" Journey called, panicking. "What's happening out there?" but she received no response, and the Dalek just continued to shout about extermination.

Clara turned to the Time Lords, who were still standing on opposite sides of the room. "Doctor, Adelaide, what happened?"

"Do you see?"

"Do I see what?"

"Daleks don't turn good," Adelaide said. "It was radiation affecting the brain chemistry."

Journey shook her head. "Let me get this straight. We had a good Dalek, and we made it bad again? That's all we've done?"

"There was never a good Dalek," Adelaide's voice was empty. "There was a broken Dalek and we repaired it."

"You were supposed to be helping us!"

The Doctor shrugged. "We gave it a shot. It didn't work. It was a Dalek, what did you expect?"

Journey pointed at both Time Lords. "No more talking. You are done! Okay, new objective. We are taking this Dalek down." She and the female soldier moved together.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The Doctor glanced at Clara. "What's that look for?"

"It's the look you get when I'm about to slap you. Both of you." Clara slapped the Doctor first before rounding on Adelaide too, not letting her escape the blame this time.

"Ow," both Time Lords said, rubbing their faces.

"Are we going to die in here? I mean, there's a little bit of you" specifically pointing to the Doctor, Adelaide's expression was harder to read as always "that's pleased. The Daleks are evil after all. Everything makes sense. The Doctor is right."

The Doctor nodded. "Daleks are evil. Irreversibly so. That's what we just learned."

"No, Doctor, that is not what we just learned."

"We need to place these charges for maximum effect," Journey called, holding up a collection of cylinders. "I'm going to scan the rest of the architecture for weakness."

"One question," Clara said, but Journey interrupted.

"No time." The two soldiers hurried to place charges around the room.

"Why did we come here today?" Clara stepped up to the Doctor. "What was the point? You." She nodded at him. "You thought there was a good Dalek. What difference would one good Dalek make?"

The Doctor shook his head. "All the difference in the universe, but it's impossible."

"Is that a fact?" Clara looked between the Time Lords. "Is that really what we've learned today? Think about it. Is that what we've learned?"

The Time Lords, mainly the Doctor, grinned. "Clara Oswald, do we really not pay you?"

Clara grinned. "You couldn't afford me."

The Doctor spun to the soldiers, Journey having just lowered her comm. "Whatever you're going to do, don't do it. This Dalek must not be destroyed. We can do better."

Journey looked at him in disbelief. "Are you out of your mind?"

"No, I'm inside a Dalek. I'm standing where I've never been." He looked to Adelaide. "We cannot waste this chance. It won't come again."

"What chance? I have my orders."

"Soldiers take orders."

Journey nodded. "And I'm a soldier."

"A Dalek is a better soldier than you will ever be." He gestured to the charges. "You can't win this way."

Journey held up the charge, considering it, but then she put it down again. "So what do we do?"

The Doctor grinned. "Something better."

|C-S|

They climbed up the interior of the Dalek, only stopping once they reached a small outcropping. The Time Lords, having gone up first, helped each of the group up as they arrived. "The Dalek isn't just some angry blob in a Dalekanium tank," the Doctor explained. "If it was, the radiation would have turned it into a raging lunatic."

"It is a raging lunatic," Journey said, "it's a Dalek."

"But for a moment, it wasn't," Adelaide reminded her. "The radiation allowed it to expand its consciousness, to consider things beyond its natural terms of reference."

The Doctor pointed at her. "It became good. That means a good Dalek is possible. That's what we learned today." He glanced at Clara. "Are we right, teach?"

Clara smiled. "Top of the class."

"But now it's back to how it was."

The Doctor nodded. "But what it saw, what it felt, is still there."

"Yeah," Journey shook her head, "I'm not really seeing that."

"Not here. There." He pointed upward.

Journey followed the gesture. "You mean in the cortex vault?"

Clara raised her eyebrows. "The evil engineering?"

"Every memory recorded. Some suppressed, but all still intact. We need to show the Dalek that star being born again. Recreate that moment. You" he pointed to Clara "need to get up there, find that moment and reawaken it."

"Me?" Clara pointed at herself.

"Yes, you. Good idea."

"How?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Haven't the foggiest. Do a clever thing."

"I think you can spot suppressed memories via dark panels and bulbs," Adelaide told her. "Find some way to turn them on." She knew that Clara would likely succeed quicker if Adelaide actually went with her but, honestly, Adelaide was a bit selfish and she wanted to see for herself if it was possible to create a good Dalek.

If she could prove the Time Lords wrong.

"See?" the Doctor pointed at Adelaide. "A clever thing from a clever girl."

"And, hopefully, once you've done it, the Dalek will be suggestible to new ideas."

He nodded. "It will be open again. And we will show it something that will change its mind forever."

"What?" Journey asked, but the Time Lords said nothing. "Not a clue. This is crazy. There is no way that we can get back up there in time."

The other soldier pulled out her harpoon. "Yes, there is."

"No, Gretchen. It'll bring the antibodies back down on us."

Gretchen turned to Clara. "Tell me the truth. Are they mad, or are they right? I've come this far. Probably going to die anyway. Wouldn't mind something to do for the rest of my life. Are they mad, or are they right?"

"Hand on my heart?" Clara did so. "Most days they're both."

Gretchen nodded. "One question, then. Is this worth it?"

"If we can turn one Dalek, we can turn them all." The Doctor nodded. "We can save the future."

"Gretchen Alison Carlisle. Do something good and name it after me."

The Time Lords nodded. "We will do something amazing, I promise."

"Damn well better." Gretchen prepared her harpoon, firing two up to the memory bank. Almost instantly they could hear the antibodies approaching. "Go!"

"They're coming," Clara gasped. "They're coming."

Journey attached a pulley onto the harpoon wires. "Grab hold of the rope," she told Clara. "Don't look down."

Gretchen gave them a small smile. "Good luck."

Clara and Journey rode the pulley upward and the Time Lords hurried to get back down to the Dalek, leaving Gretchen to sacrifice herself.

|C-S|

The Time Lords, assisting each other, managed to reach the platform right in front of the Dalek's eye. "Well, Rusty," the Doctor said, "here we are. Eye to Eye."

"You cannot save the humans," the Dalek told them. "They will be exterminated. I shall join the Dalek units in the final attack."

"We saved your life, Rusty," he reminded the Dalek. "Now we're going to do one better. We're going to save your soul."

"Daleks do not have souls."

"Imagine if you did," Adelaide said. "What would happen then?"

There was a flash and a screen was projected where they could see. Whatever Clara was doing, likely, was working to at least some degree. "Your memories," the Doctor gestured towards the screen, to the dying soldiers. "We're about to give some back to you." He rushed to the side, grabbing a long bit of tubing and beginning to sonic it. "See, all those years ago, when I began, I was just running. I called myself the Doctor, but it was just a name. And then I went to Skaro." He managed to split the tubing in half, pulling out the cable-like things inside. "And then I met you lot and I understood who I was. The Doctor was not the Daleks."

More memories flashed down to the Dalek, ones Adelaide actually recognized from her time as Caroline, ships she'd been on. "Look, it's your memories. Someone's been messing about in your head." She glanced at the Doctor. "Do you remember the star you saw being born?"

"I...I remember..."

The memory appeared behind them, the birth of a star reflected in the eye of a Dalek.

The Doctor nodded. "You saw the truth, Rusty. Remember how you felt. You saw a star being born. The endless rebirth of the universe!"

"No..."

"And you realized the truth about the Daleks!"

"Truth? What is the truth?"

"Let me show you the truth. I've opened your mind and now I'm coming in." He forced two cut ends of the wire, screaming from the pain of the energy surging through him. He opened his mind up to the Dalek. "I'm part of you. My mind is your mind."

The Dalek's eye widened. "I see your mind, Doctor. I see your universe."

"And isn't the universe beautiful?" The Doctor's memories were playing across the screen now. Adelaide knew she couldn't help him now, but she had come here to watch anyway. To witness a good Dalek.

To witness proof that it could change without being broken.

"I see beauty."

"Yes, that's good." The Doctor nodded. "That is good. Hold on to that."

"I see endless, divine perfection."

"Make it a part of you. Remember how you feel right now. Put it inside you and live by it."

"I see into your soul, Doctor," the Dalek said. "I see beauty. I see divinity. I see...hatred." The images shifted to the destruction of the Daleks, to the various points when the Doctor had faced them, had destroyed them.

Both Time Lords paused. "Hatred?" the Doctor asked.

"I see your hatred of the Daleks and it is good."

"No, no, no," the Doctor was panicking slightly. "You must see more than that, there must be more than that."

"Death to the Daleks!" the Dalek cheered. "Death to the Daleks! Death to the Daleks!"

"No, there must be more than that. There must be more than that! Please!"

"Daleks are evil! Daleks must be exterminated!" the Dalek chanted. "Daleks are evil! Daleks must be exterminated! Exterminate!" The Dalek, from what they could see on the screen, raged through the ship, destroying all of the Daleks in the ship. Only then did it stop. "The Daleks are exterminated."

The Doctor glared at it. "Of course they are. That's what you do, isn't it?"

And Adelaide closed her eyes because the Time Lords had been right. Because all Daleks could do was hate.

|C-S|

Once they'd been resized, Journey ran to hug her uncle. "Journey," he said, relieved.

"Uncle Morgan."

"I have transmitted a retreat signal," the Dalek said, the two Time Lords turning to look at it while Clara stepped up to them. "The Daleks will believe the humans have initiated the ship's self-destruct."

"What about you, Rusty?" Clara asked.

"I must go with them."

The Doctor nodded, his expression stern. "Of course you must. You've unfinished work, haven't you?"

"Victory is yours, but it does not please you."

He shook his head, taking Adelaide's hand. "You looked inside me and you saw hatred. That's not victory. Victory would have been a good Dalek."

"I am not a good Dalek," the Dalek replied. "You are a good Dalek." It rolled out of the room, leaving them.

The Doctor looked after it. "Till the next time."

The Time Lords turned without saying anything, leaving the room and hurrying to where they'd left the TARDIS. They couldn't say anything when they were both attempting to work through the revelations this Dalek had given them. Normally, Adelaide would have said goodbye, but she was a bit distracted.

The Dalek had only turned good because of a leak of radiation. She'd only changed because of a leak of a fob watch. And the Dalek had returned to its original self. She had not.

"Doctor!" Journey called, making them turn. Clara had run after the Time Lords once she'd noticed they'd left. "Adelaide! Take me with you."

The Time Lords tightened their grips on each other's hand for a moment. "I think you're probably nice," the Doctor said. "Underneath it all, I think you're kind and you're definitely brave." He shook his head. "I just wish you hadn't been a soldier."

And Adelaide said nothing to contradict him because she thought it was right. Especially after Christmas, she wanted nothing to do with war or soldiers.

They stepped into the TARDIS, Clara exchanging a smile with Journey before joining them.

|C-S|

Clara ran back into the console after getting changed; all three of them had and taken long showers, but the Time Lords still looked the same as before. "How do I look?" she gestured at her new clothing.

The Doctor glanced up. "Sort of short and round-ish, but with a good personality, which the main thing."

Clara sighed. "I meant my clothes. I just changed."

He grinned. "Oh, good for you, still making an effort."

Clara just turned to Adelaide. "Lovely," Adelaide called, setting the TARDIS down. "Back where we found you thirty seconds after you left...hopefully."

Clara moved towards the door. "When will I see you again?"

"Oh...soon, I expect. Or later. One of those."

She opened the door, about to step back, but then she looked back at the Time Lords. "I don't know."

"I'm sorry?"

"You asked me if you're a good man and the answer is...I don't know. But I think you try to be and I think that's probably the point."

Adelaide smiled at her. "You are an amazing teacher."

Clara laughed. "I think I'd better be." She stepped out of the TARDIS and closed the door behind her, leaving the Time Lords to turn to the TARDIS.

"For the record," the Doctor said as they set the TARDIS flying together, "I think you're a good woman."

"Really?"

He nodded. "If my opinion matters."

"Of course it does." Adelaide squeezed the Doctor's hand when she stepped closer to him. They stayed like that, side by side, for a second longer than necessary before they parted ways again.

 **A/N: If only they'd found a real good Dalek...**


	5. Myths

**Myths**

Adelaide glanced over to where the Doctor was working on Gallifreyan maths. She didn't know exactly what he was doing, only that he'd said he'd stop once Clara arrived...and had not stopped. At the moment, Clara was spinning in circles on a random swivel chair she'd found, looking incredibly bored. Adelaide was leaning against the console flicking through a notebook of the Time Lord's diagrams of the TARDIS.

"Your choice," Adelaide called to Clara, making her spin to her. "Wherever, whenever, anywhere in time and space."

"Oi!" the Doctor called, making them both look up at him. "I get to propose adventures."

"I've had plenty adventures without you, Doctor," she reminded him.

"My companion."

"Her assistant," Clara said, exchanging a grin with Adelaide.

"My TARDIS!"

"Shall we go looking for mine then?"

Clara spun to her, frowning. "You have a TARDIS?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "I thought I'd made it quite clear that I've done a lot of traveling on my own. Having a TARDIS is typically required for Time Lords to do so."

"Where is it?"

"No idea." She sighed. "I crash landed into Bath in the summer of 2008 and wandered out as a human known as Caroline Alice Attwater, an employee in the Adipose Industries call center and the only daughter of the childless Katheryn and Ryan Attwater. My TARDIS, unlike the Doctor's, is advanced enough to put itself into constant flux as it repairs itself."

"Couldn't you scan for it?"

"It's hidden from other TARDISes. I'd have to go physically looking for it and I haven't gotten around to doing that yet." She pushed herself standing. "So, back on track: wherever, whenever, anywhere in time and space?"

Clara considered it for a moment. "Well, there is something, someone that I've always wanted to meet. But I know what you'll both say."

The Doctor turned, leaning on the railing of the upper level. "Try us."

"You'll say he's made up, that there is no such thing."

Adelaide nodded. "Yes?"

"It's...It's Robin Hood."

"Robin Hood." The Doctor glanced at Adelaide, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Clara stepped back, looking between the two of them. "I love that story. I've always loved it, ever since I was little."

"Robin Hood, the heroic outlaw, who robs from the rich and gives to the poor."

"Yeah."

"He's made up. There's no such thing."

Clara sighed, nodding. "Ah, you see?"

The Doctor turned, taking a book from the bookshelf next to him and flicking through it before putting it back. "Old-fashioned heroes only exist in old-fashioned story books, Clara."

"And what about you two?"

"Us?"

"Yeah, you two," Clara nodded between them. "You both stop bad things happening every minute of every day. That sounds pretty heroic to me."

The Doctor smirked, taking a lick from a nearby large spoon. "Just passing the time." He spun. "Hey, what about Mars?"

Clara frowned. "What?"

"The Ice Warrior Hives!"

"Adelaide said it was my choice."

He shrugged. "Or the Tumescent Arrows of the Half-Light. Those girls can hold their drink."

"Doctor," Adelaide called.

"And fracture fifteen different levels of reality simultaneously." He considered it. "I think I've got a Polaroid somewhere..."

"Doctor!" Clara said sharply, making him turn to her. "My choice. Robin Hood. Show me."

He sighed, coming down to the console. "Very well." The Time Lords worked together to start piloting. "Earth. England. Sherwood Forest. 1190AD...ish. But you'll only be disappointed."

"Be right back!" Clara called, turning off to run into the TARDIS...only to stop and come back for Adelaide. "Come on." She said, grinning, and grabbed the Time Lady's hand before either of them could do something.

|C-S|

The Doctor didn't bother waiting for the women to return. He was fairly certain Adelaide, in particular, would be a bit upset that he'd started adventuring without her – she, apparently, still had quite a bit to go before she made up for staying on Christmas for so many years – but he didn't particularly want to wait alone in the TARDIS for however long it took them to do whatever they were doing.

As it was, he was quite pleased with the forest they'd landed in. It was everything he'd expected it to be...lacking Robin Hood. "No damsels in distress," he said to himself, nodding, "no pretty castles, no such thing as Robin Hood..."

He'd barely finished the name when an arrow struck the corner of the TARDIS. The man who'd fired it, dressed in complete green – a shade the Doctor knew Adelaide liked, which made him frown – stepped out from behind a tree on the other side of the river that spanned between them. "You called?" the man winked, grinning. "Very, very nicely done with the box, sir. I saw a Turk perform something very similar at Nottingham Fayre." The Doctor, as he spoke, pulled the arrow from the TARDIS and made the hole close up again. "It's a trick with mirrors, no doubt?"

The Doctor made a face, frowning at him. "A trick?"

"A good jest!" the man laughed.

"This is not a trick. This is a TARDIS."

"Whatever it is, you bony rascal, I'm afraid I must relieve you of it."

"It's my property, that's what it is."

The man jumped onto a fallen tree that formed a bridge across the river. "Well, don't you know all property is theft to Robin Hood?" he gave a deep bow.

The Doctor scoffed. "You're not serious."

"I'm many things, sir, but I'm never that. Robin Hood laughs in the face of all. Ha, ha, ha!" he made each laugh very intentional.

"And do people ever punch you in the face when you do that?"

"Not as yet."

"Lucky I'm here then, isn't it?"

The Doctor had just stepped forward when the TARDIS doors opened and the two women emerged. He spun and his mouth dropped open...Clara had gotten Adelaide into a green dress of the time period.

Granted, Adelaide did look a bit uncomfortable in it. The Time Lady didn't normally dress up. The few times he remembered her doing so was when a companion – Clara mostly – had convinced her it would be fun. Now, the human had convinced her to wear a dark green dress that the Doctor was fairly certain was cut a bit higher than dresses should be so that the Time Lady wouldn't trip over the skirt, stitched with black designs.

Clara had gone for something similar, hers red and longer, but the Doctor just stared at Adelaide.

If he'd looked at Clara, he would have seen the human's very amused expression; this had been exactly what she'd been aiming for.

"A bit much," Adelaide mumbled, adjusting her sleeve. It was cut away at the elbow and the Doctor could see, quite plainly, that she still wore the bracelet he'd gotten her their first actual Christmas together as Time Lords. Normally, it was blocked from sight by her jacket or sweater. "What do you think, Doctor?" She glanced up at him. "Why is your mouth open?"

"By all the saints," Robin gasped. "Are there any more in there?"

Clara frowned at the man. "Is that..."

"No," the Doctor cut her off, but Clara couldn't be stopped.

"Oh my God, oh my God! It is, isn't it? You found him. You actually found Robin Hood!" Adelaide raised her eyebrows at Clara's slight flush.

The Doctor shook his head. "That is not Robin Hood."

"Well then, who, sir, is about to relieve you of your magic box?" Robin drew his sword.

He climbed onto the log himself. "Nobody, sir. Not in this universe or the next."

Robin raised his eyebrows. "Well then, draw your sword and prove your words."

"I have no sword. I don't need a sword." He opened his coat to prove it, spinning in a small circle. "Because I am the Doctor." He pulled on a leather gauntlet, making a very specific gesture that he heard Adelaide sigh at. "And this is my spoon!" he pulled out the spoon he'd licked early. "En garde!" The Doctor lunged at Robin, actually doing an impressive job at fighting a sword with a spoon.

Clara glanced at Adelaide. "Aren't you going to stop him?"

"How often have you sword fought?" Adelaide called.

"I've had some experience," the Doctor said, continuing to fight. "Richard the Lionheart. Cyrano de Bergerac. Errol Flynn. He had the most enormous..." Adelaide raised her eyebrows, even if the Doctor couldn't see it. "Ego."

Clara laughed. "Takes one to know one."

The Doctor managed to hit Robin on the backside, who responded by cutting off a button on his coat. He stepped back, holding his arms wide to trick the man into lunging forward. The Doctor deflected the sword with the spoon, spinning until they were back to back, and then pushed Robin back off the log.

"Doctor?" Adelaide said, sighing.

"Like I said." The Doctor shrugged. "My box." He glanced at Adelaide. "Our box."

"Notice everything."

A second later, Robin popped up and shoved the Doctor into the water. The combination of the Doctor's expression and Robin's pleased smirk had Clara and Adelaide laughing.

|C-S|

Robin Hood had been quite insistent that the trio come to visit him and his Merry Men. The Time Lords had been a bit uncertain, as they were both almost positive that Robin Hood was not a real person, but Clara had followed him without a question. There hadn't been much they could do to stop her.

Adelaide did have experience with real men turned legends, so she didn't completely discount the possibility that Robin Hood had actually been a real person. She just needed evidence either way.

The group of men had commandeered a series of small caves built into the roots and underneath of trees. Robin darted ahead to greet the Merry Men, who all looked rather excited to see him. "Let me introduce you to my men," he grinned, gesturing at them. "This is Will Scarlet," he patted one man on the back. "He is a cheeky rogue with a good sword arm and a slippery tongue."

The man bowed towards Adelaide, "my lady," and gave the Doctor the perfect opportunity to snag a bit of his hair and scan it. The action distracted the man enough that he didn't even think about turning to Clara. "Argh! What do you want with my hair?"

"Well," the Doctor shrugged, "it's realistic, I'll give you that."

Robin eyed him oddly but turned to the next man. "And this is Friar Tuck. Aptly named for the amount of grub he tucks into."

"You skinny blackguard," Tuck earned a laugh from all the men for that. He stepped forward, prepared to greet the women, but stumbled as the Doctor pulled off one of his sandals. "What are you doing?"

"This isn't a real sandal!"

"Yes, it is."

The Doctor sniffed it and made a face. "Oh. Yes, it is."

"This...er," Robin continued, speaking mainly for Clara as Adelaide stepped up to take the sandal back for Tuck, "is Alan-a-Dale. He's a master of the lute, whose music brightens up these dark days."

"Stranger you are welcome here," Alan sang, "in Sherwood's bonny glade." He was cut off with a shout of pain as the Doctor jabbed his arm with a needle.

"Sorry," Adelaide told Alan, although she honestly didn't sound that sorry as she stepped up to look at the device's readings. "Blood analysis."

The Doctor gave a low whistle. "All those diseases. If you were real, you'd be dead in six months."

"I am real," Alan defended.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Bye."

"And this is John Little," Robin continued, gesturing towards a man of a rather formidable size. "Called Little John. He's my loyal companion in many an adventure."

After a second of Clara staring at the large man with wide eyes, he stepped aside and let a smaller man jump up.

"Works every time," Will laughed, everyone joining in.

Clara shook her head at the collection. "Oh, I cannot believe this. You...you really are Robin Hood and his Merry Men."

"Aye!" Robin cheered. "That is an apt description. What say you, lads?"

"Aye!"

"Stop laughing." The Doctor frowned. "Why are you always doing that? Are you all simple or something?"

"Manners," Adelaide said calmly. "Sample?"

The Time Lord nodded at that idea, grabbing a nearby goblet and, tossing away the contents, walked up to Robin holding it out. Robin frowned at it. "Of what?"

"Ahem," Clara said, stepping up to Adelaide. "Excuse me, sorry...what are you doing?"

"Working through possible theories," Adelaide said.

The Doctor nodded. "They're not holograms, that much is obvious. Could be a theme park from the future. Or we might be inside a miniscope."

Clara shook her head. "Oh, shut up."

"A miniscope," Adelaide agreed. "Yes, possible."

Robin eyed the two Time Lords, glancing at Clara. "Your friends seem not quite of the real world."

"No, no, they're not really. Not most of the time, though she can have her days." She paused, thinking back. "Dark days?"

"My lady?"

"You said that these were dark days. What did you mean?"

"King Richard is away on crusade, my lady," Will told them. "His tyrant of a brother rules instead."

"And the Sheriff," Clara nodded. "Cos there is a sheriff, right?"

"Aye. It is indeed this jackal of the princes who seeks to oppress us forever more."

The Doctor shrugged. "Or six months in your case." The two Time Lords had stepped away, taking scans of the surrounding area in order to establish exactly what was going on.

"It is a shame to dwell on murky thoughts when there is such beauty here," Robin said.

"Why are you so sad?" Clara asked him, studying his expression.

Robin forced a smile. "Why do you think me sad?"

"Because the Doctor's right, you laugh too much."

Robin sighed. "You know, I do not live this outlaw life by choice. You see before you Robert..."

"Earl of Loxley," Clara finished in unison with him. "Yes." Then she blinked. "Sorry, do go on."

"I...er...I had my lands and titles stripped from me. I dared to speak out against Prince John. But I lost the thing most dear to me."

Clara smiled. "What was she called?"

"You're so very quick." Robin shook his head. "How does the Doctor stand it?"

"He's used to it," she nodded at Adelaide. "Marian?"

Robin's eyes widened. "You know her?"

"Oh, yes. I have always known her."

"It was Marian who told me that I must stand up and be counted." Robin straightened his back at that before he sighed. "But, I was afraid. Now this green canopy is my palace and the rough ground my feather bed. Maybe one day I will return home, but until that day...until that day, it is beholden on me to be the man Marian wanted, to be a hero for those this tyrant sheriff slaughters."

"Apologies for interrupting," Adelaide called, stepping up. "What season is it?"

"Dame Autumn has draped her mellow skirts around the forest, my lady. The time of mists and harvest approaches."

Adelaide looked around at the forest. "But it's very green here."

"So?" Clara asked.

"Notice everything."

Clara frowned. "Climate change?"

"It's 1190," the Doctor called.

Robin took a step back. "You must excuse me," he nodded to Clara. "The Sheriff has issued a proclamation and tomorrow there is to be a contest to find the best archer in the land. And the bounty...it's an arrow made of pure gold."

Clara's eyes widened and she rushed to grab Robin's arm. "No! Don't, don't go. It's a trap!"

"Well, of course it is!" Robin laughed. "But a contest to find the best archer in the land? There is no contest!" all of the men burst into laughter.

"Right," the Doctor said, shaking his head, "that isn't even funny. That was bantering. I am totally against bantering."

Clara stepped closer to the Time Lords. "How can you be so sure he is not the real thing?"

"I'm not sure," Adelaide shrugged.

The Doctor, however, was far more certain. "Because he can't be."

Clara frowned at him. "When did you stop believing in everything?"

"When did you start believing in impossible heroes?"

"Don't you know?" Clara shook her head. "In a way, it's rather sweet."

"Did you have a Robin Hood pin-up alongside your Marcus Aurelius one?" Adelaide asked, making Clara laugh, blushing slightly, and the Doctor frown and eat an apple before scanning it with his sonic.

|C-S|

Even if Adelaide was starting to believe that it was possible Robin Hood had been a real person at some point, the Doctor refused to accept that he was the only one who believed the man was impossible. He attempted to convince her to support him the entire time they'd spent journeying to the archery competition, at one point asking if she was just claiming to support Robin's legitimacy in order to spite him.

"Now, why would I do something like that?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at that. "That sounds more like something you would do."

"He's a character! A story!"

"Stories are based on facts. Legends are based on people. While I admit that it seems unlikely that Robin is precisely as one would expect from the stories, it is possible." The Doctor had pouted at that. "However, I will not discount the possibility that he's not real."

He'd been much happier at that admission.

Once they'd reached the archery competition, Robin displayed his natural talent of showmanship as he proved himself the best archer in the land. The Doctor had just grabbed a nearby bow and arrow and aimed, making the arrow split Robin's arrow. The whole crowd turned to look at him. "I'm the Doctor!" he stepped forward. "My skills of a bowman speak for themselves. I claim my reward." He stepped up to the Herald, taking the golden arrow. "A mere bauble." He threw it in the general direction of the Merry Men. "I want something else."

The Sheriff considered him. "Name it."

"Enlightenment."

They were interrupted by Robin splitting the Doctor's arrow, earning a cheer from the crowd. The Doctor fired his own, ricocheting it off a guard's armor to split Robin's. Robin did the same without looking.

"This is absurd," Adelaide sighed, pulling out her sonic to set the target on fire, which earned an impressed expression from the Doctor.

The Sheriff grinned. "Fascinating. Seize them!"

The guards drew their swords, approaching the pair. Clara ran forward, grabbing a nearby weapon and attempting to swing it, failing. "What are you doing?" the Doctor called to her. "Put that down!"

"I'm fine. I take Year Seven for after school Tae Kwon Do."

Robin left forward, sword out. "Don't worry, Doctor. I'll save you!"

"We don't need saving."

"Your honor is safe...for I am Robin!" he threw off his hat, earning great cheers from the crowd. "Robin Hood!" He swung his sword, cutting one of the knight's arms. It fell to the ground with sparks, which was not what they had expected; the knight was a robot.

"Witchery!" the crowd started to yell. "Witchery!"

The Doctor picked up the arm, studying it. "Robot." The knight's visor opened to reveal the metal face behind it, a sort of cross cut into its forehead glowing violet. "Now we're getting somewhere."

"Take them!" the Sheriff ordered. "Kill the rest. Kill them all!"

The knight started firing bolts of energy from its forehead, the other knights joining in to scatter the crowd in terror.

"He surrenders!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing Robin's hand.

"What?" The Doctor chopped the man's arm, forcing him to drop the sword. "You miserable cur! I had them on the run." He looked over to his men, all attempting to force their way towards him through the crowd. "Flee, lads, flee! Live to fight another day!"

The Merry Men did as he ordered, though the Sheriff didn't seem that bothered with them. "To the dungeons with all of them."

Clara glanced at the Doctor's pleased expression. "What are you up to?"

"Quickest way to find out anybody's plans, get yourself captured."

|C-S|

The Doctor found himself quite regretting his plan because it had ended up with the four of them locked in a very dark dungeon and he knew that those were two things Adelaide did not like. She already feared the dark, he'd known that, but over time he'd learned that that also meant she feared confinement. Normally that meant being completely and utterly enclosed, but he could tell by the way she was shifting that that meant being chained to something too – at least, for this regeneration.

Though, one of the only other times something like this had happened they hadn't actually been trapped and the TARDIS had been right behind them, so maybe he didn't have much precedence for how Adelaide would react.

He was barely close enough to Adelaide to touch her fingers, with the Time Lady being chained between him and Robin.

"Splendid," Robin mumbled. "Enchained."

Clara nodded. "Yep."

"Trussed up like turkey-cocks. Thanks to your friend."

"Shut it, Hoodie," the Doctor snapped, knowing Adelaide either wouldn't bother correcting him or wouldn't mind him being a bit rude to Robin, as he knew the man's complaints were not helping her in the slightest. "I saved your life."

"I had the situation well in hand," Robin scoffed.

"Long-haired ninny versus robot killer knights? I know where I'd put my money."

"If you had not betrayed me, I would have been triumphant."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "You would have been a little puff of smoke and ashes."

"Oh, ha!"

"You'd have been floating around in tiny little laughing bits in people's goblets!"

"Balderdash, ha!"

He groaned. "Oh, right, here we go, it's laughing time."

"Well, you amuse me, grey old man."

"Guard!" the Doctor called, leaning forward. "He's laughing again! You can't keep us locked up with a laughing person!"

"Oh, I find that...I find that quite funny. Do you know, I feel another laugh coming on. A-ha-ha-ha!" Robin made that laugh loud to make a point.

"Guards, I cannot remain in this cell! Execute me now!"

"You heard him," Robin nodded. "Execute the old fool."

"No, hang on. Execute him."

Robin shrugged. "I do not fear death, so execute away."

"Execute him! I'd like to see if his head keeps laughing when you chop it off!"

"Oh," Robin grinned, "Robin Hood always laughs in the face of death."

"Yes, rolling around the floor laughing, I would pay good money to see that."

"Guard!" the two men started shouting in unison. "Guard! Guard! Guard! Guard! Guard!"

"Oh, you two, shut up!" Clara snapped, making both men go silent. "Do either of you understand, in any way at all, that there isn't actually a guard out there?"

The Doctor blinked. "Oh."

"I did, in fact."

"No, you didn't."

"Good job, Clara," Adelaide nodded, exchanging a smile with the human. "Notice everything."

"The Doctor and Robin Hood locked up in a cellar. Is this seriously the best that you can do? You're determined to starve to death in here squabbling."

"Well, I can tell you one thing," Robin scoffed. "I'd last a lot longer than this desiccated man-crone."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well, you know what? I think you'll find I have a certain genetic advantage...ow!"

Adelaide had, very hard, yanked on the chain that attached her to him. "This is not a competition over who can die slower, Doctor."

"It would definitely be me, though, wouldn't it?"

Clara sighed. "There was supposed to be a plan. Do any of you have a plan?"

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded, "of course I have a plan."

"I do have a plan," Robin said quickly.

"Okay. Robin, you first."

The Doctor frowned at Clara. "Why him?"

"Doctor, shut up. Robin, your plan."

There was a moment of quiet. "I am biding my time."

Clara sighed. "Thank you, Prince of Thieves. Last of the Time Lords?"

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "I have a plan."

"Can you explain your plan without using the word sonic?" Adelaide asked, who was greatly regretting the fact she'd never learned how to pick an Earth lock. She'd always meant to but had never actually gotten around to it; honestly, she'd never expected to spend so much time on Earth. But if she could just reach into her pocket...

Clara nodded. "Because you might have forgotten the Sheriff of Nottingham has taken your sonic screwdriver, just saying." When the Doctor said nothing, she sighed. "It's always the sonic."

"Okay, let...let...let...let's hear Robin's plan first."

"Oh, for God's sake."

They heard the sound of the door unlocking, both men perking up. "See? There was a guard. There was a guard listening the whole time, I knew it. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

The guard entered the cell. "The Sheriff himself commanded me to listen, to find out which of you is the true ringleader."

The Doctor nodded. "Ah, so he can do the interrogating. Very wise."

"Excellent! He will get nothing from me!"

"No, no, no, no, no, he will get nothing from me, because interrogation," the Doctor grinned at Adelaide, although she did not return it, "that's where I always turn the tables. You see, that's my plan."

Robin rolled his eyes. "Just hurry up and take me to him."

"No, no, chop-chop, come on."

But instead of approaching one of the men, or even Adelaide, the guard unchained Clara. Granted, the human was a bit surprised at that. "Seriously?"

"Come on."

"No."

"What are you doing?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

But the guard didn't listen, locking the door behind him and Clara. "To be fair," Adelaide said quietly, "I am glad that he didn't pick me. I'm not good at interrogation on a good day." The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but Adelaide cut him off. "Clara and I are the bosses, Doctor, we've established this."

"Clara's not a boss."

 **A/N: A bit more of a lighthearted chapter this week. Sometimes, the Time Lords can be quite sweet together :)**


	6. Legends

**Legends**

Robin spun to look at the Doctor. "Be sick!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Beat your breast. Moan. Groan as though twenty devils possessed your guts."

The Doctor frowned. "What for?"

"To attract the guard's attention," Adelaide offered.

He made a face. "It's your plan. You moan."

"No, no, no, it won't work."

"Why?"

"Oh, because you're clearly more advanced in years and you have a sickly aspect to you."

That just made the Doctor's frown deepen. "I have a what?"

"You're as pale as milk." Robin shrugged, glancing at Adelaide. "It's the way with Scots. They're strangers to vegetables."

"Why can't Adelaide do it?"

"Because she glows with the essence of youth," Robin said, grinning.

"You're not allowed to compliment her!"

"Robin," Adelaide sighed, "the Doctor's not going to be moaning anytime soon."

"Fine," he huffed. "If you want something doing..." he gave a loud moan. "Can I rely upon you to do the rest?" he hissed to the Doctor.

"Yes, yes, I know the drill."

Robin moaned again and they saw the guard through the grill at the door. "What is this din?"

"No business of yours, cur!" He leaned closer to Robin. "Speak up. I can't hear you."

"What ails him?"

"None of your business!"

That got the guard to enter the cell. "I said, what ails him?"

"Well," the Doctor nodded to Robin, "if you must know, he's having a nervous breakdown."

"A what?"

"He's like this whenever he's in any kind of danger. He just can't seem to cope. He gets so afraid." The Doctor shook his head. "He goes into a kind of fit. I honestly believe that he may die of sheer fright, like some tiny, shivering little mouse." He made a face. "Oh God, I think he's soiled himself."

"Let him die." The guard moved to leave the cell again. "It will save us the trouble of executing him."

"And what will happen to the reward?"

The guard paused, and Adelaide was honestly shocked at how easy it was to trick him. "Reward?"

"Oh God," the Doctor's eyes widened, "I shouldn't have said that."

"Tell me!"

"He carries a vital message. The Prince has promised a bounty."

"A big one?"

"An enormous one."

Robin mumbled something and the guard leaned closer, trying to hear it. "What's that? Say again?"

"Come closer," Robin breathed, and the guard obeyed. "Your breath stinks like a serpent, has anyone ever told you that?" He head-butted the guard, knocking him out cold. "Soiled myself?"

"Did you? That's getting into character." The Doctor leaned forward. "Okay, keys."

"I'll get them." Both men started to stretch forward, attempting to use their feet to get the guard's keys.

"No, no, I'll get them."

"I'll get them, I'll get them!"

"I'm fine, no, no worries. I've got them!"

"I've got them! I'll get..."

But with a splash, they managed to kick the guard's keys soundly down the drain. There was a moment of silence. "Bravo," Adelaide said and they both turned to see that she was standing between them, holding her sonic pen and looking some mixture of amused and annoyed. "I'm very tempted to just leave you here."

"How did you..."

"The men of this era don't tend to search the inner pockets of a well-dressed lady." She crossed her arms. "Would serve both of you well to be stuck in a dungeon alone together for longer."

"Please?" Adelaide didn't look as she soniced the Doctor's chains, releasing him before Robin. "The magic word!"

"Honestly have no idea how I survived without sonics before we met," Adelaide said, freeing Robin before leaving the cell.

"Does she do this often?" Robin called after the Doctor.

"Do what?"

"Rescue you."

He grinned. "She's the boss."

"You're a very lucky man." Before the Doctor could say anything, Robin darted past him and after Adelaide.

|C-S|

After dealing with the men arguing over which direction they would go in the palace, Adelaide was struck with the fact this was probably what she and the Doctor were like in their first few adventures after she'd opened the fob watch – though for a very different reason. Still, teasing the Doctor about that had had the desired end of getting him to finally pay attention to where they were going instead of just how to best Robin.

For some reason, that reaction only served to make Robin grin, which had Adelaide thinking that he and Clara would be very well suited. The girl had developed a tendency to smile at odd moments after the Doctor and Adelaide had spoken.

Once the Doctor was focused, it didn't take them that long to encounter a metal door that clearly didn't come from this era of history. He went inside first, finding a central console and monitor. "At last," he grinned. "Something real. No more fairy tales."

"What is this place?" Robin asked, looking around them.

"A spaceship. More twenty-ninth century than twelfth." He worked on the monitor. "Data banks, data banks, data banks. Where was this ship headed?" he managed to pull up some information, glancing at Adelaide when he saw the name. "The Promised Land again."

Adelaide touched the console. "Similar to the Half-Face Man, but this is more sophisticated."

He nodded. "It disguised itself as a twelfth-century castle." A diagram appeared, showing the ship landing. "It merges into the culture, tries to keep a low profile, so no one notices. That explains the robot knights. But the engines...the engines are damaged. They're leaking radiation into the local atmosphere."

"Creating temporary climate change."

"I beg pardon?"

"She told you, it's too sunny," the Doctor said. "It's too green. And there is even an evil sheriff to oppress the locals. This explains everything, even you." He gestured at Robin.

"It does?"

"Well, what does every oppressed peasant workforce need? The illusion of hope. Some silly story to get them through the day, lull them into docility, and keep them working. Ship's data banks," he messed with the console more, pulling up records. "Full of every myth and legend you could hope for, including Robin Hood." Various versions of the tale flickered past on the screen. "Isn't it time you came clean with us? You're not real and you know it. Look at you," he turned, focusing on the man. "Perfect eyes, perfect teeth. Nobody has a jawline like that. You're as much a part of what is happening here as the Sheriff and his metal knights. You're a robot."

Robin stiffened, clearly angered. "You dare to accuse me of collusion with that villain, the Sheriff?"

The Doctor stepped forward, almost moving to stand in front of Adelaide given how they'd ended up standing. "I dare."

"You false-tongued knave! I should have skewered you when I had the chance."

The Doctor scoffed. "I would like to see you try." They were interrupted by the door being blown inwards. "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."

The Sheriff, with Clara and some robotic knights, entered the room. "Surrender, outlaw!"

The Doctor began to clap. "Very good."

"Kill him." The Sheriff turned to the knights. "Kill Robin Hood."

"You can drop all that stuff now, Sheriff."

Clara leaned forward. "Adelaide?"

"He is not what you think he is. This is all play-acting."

But Adelaide was frowning. "Doctor..."

"We can't just let them kill him!"

"You're not fooling anyone, Sheriff," the Doctor continued, not seeming to hear Adelaide or Clara.

One of the knights shot at Robin, only managing to knock him off his feet. Clara ran to be between him and the knight, but Robin just leaped forward, grabbed her around the waist, and moved back to the window. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Surviving." Robin met the Time Lords' eyes before falling backward.

"No!" The Doctor shouted, running forward. "No! Clara!" He watched them land in the moat.

"Yeah," the Sheriff said, Adelaide still focused on him, "sorry about the girl. Such a pretty thing. What a queen she would have made." He turned away and the Doctor stepped back from the window, giving Adelaide a nod to know that Robin and Clara had survived their fall.

"Stop pretending," he told the Sheriff. "You and your fancy robots. We get it. We understand."

"Oh, so you too know my plans?"

"You and the robots are plundering the surrounding countryside for all its gold," Adelaide said, "in order to create a matrix of gold to repair the engine circuitry." The Doctor glanced at her. "That's basic science, Doctor, even I know that's how gold works."

The Sheriff nodded. "This is the scheme the Mechanicals have devised. Soon this skyship will depart. Destination, London. There I will obliterate the King and take my rightful place as ruler of this sceptered isle."

"It won't work. There's not a chance. We've seen the instruments. There's been too much damage. You are stoking up a gigantic bomb!"

The Sheriff waved a hand at them. "Shush."

A knight stepped up, knocking out Adelaide and then the Doctor in quick succession.

|C-S|

Adelaide was the first one to wake in the base of the castle, where various robot knights were working. She didn't have that long to examine the current situation before he started awake, doing so far more violently than Adelaide had.

"Kind of them to keep chaining us up next to each other," Adelaide mumbled, making the Doctor grin.

"Still have your sonic?"

"Just have to reach it."

As she worked to reach the particular pocket where she kept her sonic in this dress, the Doctor examined their surroundings. "Engine capacity at forty-eight percent," one of the knights said, making him frown.

"It's not enough. That's not enough. It'll never make orbit." They could hear the people being worked to death by the robots around them, interspersed with a mechanical sound. "That's the engines, building in power. Stupid, stupid Sheriff." Adelaide managed to pull out her sonic, angling it to free herself. "What are you looking at?" she glanced over, seeing a young woman she hadn't noticed watching them.

"I think I understand you," the young woman said. "The Sheriff's using the gold to replace something."

He nodded. "That's the principle. But he's a moron. If he tries to fly this ship, it'll explode and wipe out half the country." He glanced at Adelaide. "What we need is a little riot. Time to reflect on lasers and gold. Spread the word."

The woman nodded, turning and rushing back to where the rest of the people were. Adelaide quickly freed the Doctor before they both continued to sit like they were still chained, needing to give the woman as much time as possible before the robots realized something was wrong.

"How did you manage without a sonic?" he asked, repeating her question from earlier

"I didn't get into many situations that required me to free myself." He frowned. "You do realize that the primary reason we keep getting into these situations is you."

"More fun that way."

Adelaide sighed, shaking her head. "Different kinds of fun."

"And different is good?"

"Different is okay."

|C-S|

A robot approached them, scanning the pair. "You are fit for labor." It directed its attention to the woman, who'd approached them again. "Stand aside while these peasant units are freed."

"I'm afraid you're a little late," the Doctor said.

"Explain."

"We're already free!" they pulled their hands from behind their back. The robot began to power up its laser, but the Doctor grabbed a golden plate and redirected the beam back at the robot, exploding its head.

More robots started to gather, but when they attempted to use the lasers the other people used their own reflective objects to fight back. A few people were hit by misdirected beams, but far more robots were. "Everyone, the last one!" the Doctor called, the people surrounding the final robot. The beam bounced around the reflective surfaces, building in power until it finally hit the robot, destroying it. "Out, out! Everyone, quickly, get out! Quickly!"

The people fled, but the woman rushed up to them again. "You've saved us all! Thank you!" she kissed the Doctor's cheek, rushing off after the people as the Time Lords hurried further into the tunnels, attempting to find the main control room.

"Engine capacity at eighty-two percent," a robot announced, the Time Lords entered a room full of melting vats and the Sheriff.

The man turned to them. "You are indeed ingenious, Doctor, Adelaide, but do you really think your peasants' revolt can stop me?"

"I rather think you're the revolting one around here." The Doctor made a face. "I'm bantering, I'm bantering."

"You don't have enough gold content to seal the engine breach," Adelaide called up. "If you attempt to take off, you'll likely wipe out half of England."

"Liar!"

"Adelaide doesn't lie! Lying is rude!"

The Sheriff wasn't perturbed by the Doctor's shout. "From my sky vessel, I shall rule omnipotent."

"You pudding-headed primitive, shut down the engines. What you're doing will alter the course of history."

The Sheriff grinned. "I sincerely hope so, or I wouldn't be bothering." He tossed a robot's head into the vat next to him.

"Listen to us," the Doctor tried. "It doesn't have to end like this. Shut it all down, return Clara to us and we'll do what we can."

The Sheriff frowned. "I don't have Clara."

"Robin's one of yours."

"What did you say?"

"He's one of your tin-headed puppets, just like these brutes here," the Doctor waved a hand towards the robots.

"Robin Hood is not one of mine."

"Of course he is," he scoffed. "He's a robot, created by your mechanical mates."

"Why would they do that?"

He shrugged. "To pacify the locals, give them false hope. He's the opiate of the masses."

"Doctor," Adelaide said, "why would they create an enemy to fight them?"

"Yes, that would be a rubbish idea. Why would you do that?" he frowned at her, shaking his head. "But he can't be...he's not real...he's a legend!"

"Too kind!" Robin called from above them, having appeared in the gallery above. "And this legend does not come alone."

Clara waved. "Hiya!"

Robin, grabbing Clara around the waist, used his dagger to slide down the wall to the Time Lords' level. "You alright?"

Clara grinned. "Hello yeah."

"Good." He hurried over to the Time Lords. "My men have taken the castle."

"No!" the Sheriff shouted.

Robin turned to him. "Now I'm going to take you."

The Sheriff glared. "This one's all mine." He touched an amulet on his neck, shutting off the two robots around him before walking closer to Robin. "What do you say, outlaw? A final reckoning?"

"Oh, yes." Robin lifted his sword, their fight beginning.

Clara hurried over to the Time Lords. "Are you okay?" the Doctor asked her.

"Fine, yeah."

"Good."

Adelaide glanced around them, the whole building starting to rumble. "We don't have long."

"I shall avenge every slight, outlaw!" the Sheriff shouted.

"The whole castle's about to blow."

"You have long been a thorn in my side!"

"Well," Robin shrugged, "everyone should have a hobby. Mine's annoying you."

Clara elbowed the Doctor. "So's yours." He made a face.

"I'll have you boiled in oil at the castle by sunset."

"Can we make it a little earlier? Cos that's a little past my bedtime." Robin cut a rope, using it to launch him up to the beams.

The Sheriff did the same. "I'm too much for you, outlaw. The first of a new breed. Half man, half engine. Never aging. Never tiring."

Robin frowned. "Are you still talking?"

The Sheriff managed to cut Robin's arm, forcing him to drop his sword and scramble for his dagger. Robin took a step back, gesturing for the man to step forward. "Bow down before your new king, you prince of knaves!" The Sheriff obeyed, lunging, and Robin did the same technique as the Doctor earlier, twisting so that he and the Sheriff were back to back before he shoved the man into the vat below.

Robin didn't wait to see what happened, using a rope to bring himself back to the ground. "Sorry. Was that...was that showing off?"

"That was amazing!" Clara laughed.

The castle started to shake again, more that time. "Run!" the Doctor ordered, grabbing Adelaide's hand. "Come on, run!"

|C-S|

They found the collection of Merry Men waiting across the moat, though they all turned when they heard the crashing sound of the ship – which had been disguised as the keep – breaking free of the stone and taking flight. "It's never going to make it," the Doctor said. "Not enough gold. It'll never make it into orbit." He frowned, turning to the men and patting his pockets. "Where is it? Where did it go?"

"Where did what go?" Clara asked.

"The golden arrow!"

"Tuck!" Robin spun.

"You took it?"

Tuck shrugged. "Of course we did. We're robbers."

The Doctor grinned. "I love you boys."

"Doctor," Clara frowned, "what are you suggesting?"

"The golden arrow may just have enough gold content to get the ship into orbit and out of harm's way," Adelaide explained.

The Doctor held out the bow to Robin, but the man shook his head. "No, it has to be you. My arm is injured."

He turned it to Adelaide, but the Time Lady frowned. "What about me makes you suspect that I'll be able to properly fire an arrow?"

"Calculate the proper angle and resistance?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I'm a biologist, not a mathematician."

"Why can't you do it?" Clara asked the Doctor. "You won the tournament."

"I cheated. I made a special arrow with a homing device." He leaned closer to her. "Adelaide wasn't that happy."

"I never said anything!"

Clara sighed. "Robin, you aim it, the Doctor and I hold it, and Adelaide shoots it. Teamwork."

The four hurried into position, Robin helping Adelaide aim it before shooting it, hitting right in the middle of an engine. The ship started flying faster, getting just enough thrust to enter the orbit before it exploded.

The crowd cheered once they'd succeeded. "One awful day in Nottingham," Alan started to sing, "Brave Robin Hood was in a jam. The arrow flew it true..."

Will pulled the lute from him, making Alan pout. "Give it a rest, Alan."

"Give me my lute!"

Clara shook her head at them, turning back to the Time Lord and Robin. "Still not keen on the laughing thing?"

"No, no, no, no," he shook his head.

Clara and Robin laughed loudly, the Merry Men joining in, and the Time Lords smiled, standing close to each other, hands just brushing.

|C-S|

The Time Lords stepped out of the TARDIS just as Robin and Clara finished her archery lesson. Adelaide had forced the Doctor to give them more privacy, which had been quite difficult because the man hadn't liked the thought of Clara getting so personal with a man. Adelaide had just shaken her head at him.

While in the TARDIS, Adelaide had gone to change out of her dress, but the Doctor had given her a very reasonable reason why they didn't have time for that yet.

He would never tell her, but she looked beautiful.

Not that she didn't look beautiful always. Adelaide was always beautiful. He'd always thought so. Every time he looked at her he thought so. Every time he looked at her he wanted to be close to her but not...not _that_ close. Just near, just touching, just embraced in her arms, just knowing she was close and knowing she wanted to be. But nothing like _that_. Nothing like the archery lesson Robin was giving Clara.

And while she did always look beautiful, he had to admit that seeing her in this different dress made her beauty even more noticeable.

He couldn't tell if she'd realized why he didn't want her to change – he honestly didn't put it past her – but she hadn't said anything. She hadn't even given any sign that she knew what was going on in her head.

Which did make him wonder, honestly...what did she think of him? He'd asked her, right after he'd regenerated, once everything had calmed down, and she'd told him that what was on the outside didn't matter. But she'd never said if she actually liked his new face or not.

He made a note to get her to tell him the truth, or as close to the truth as Adelaide's politeness would let her.

Clara kissed Robin's cheek before stepping back, giving the Time Lords a wave as she passed them on her way into the TARDIS. She'd also given them a knowing look, as though she knew something that they didn't, before vanishing.

Robin watched Clara walk away before turning to the Time Lords, stepping up to them. "So, is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"That in the future I am forgotten as a real man? I am but a legend?"

The Doctor had been quite upset that technically Adelaide had been proven right, as she'd said it was possible that there was a real person behind the legends. "I'm afraid it is."

Robin nodded. "Hmm...good. History is a burden. Stories can make us fly."

"I'm still having a little trouble believing yours, I'm afraid."

"Is it so hard to credit? That a man born into wealth and privilege should find the plight of the oppressed and weak too much to bear..." Robin exchanged a look with Adelaide. "Until one night, he is moved to steal a TARDIS? Fly among the stars, fighting the good fight." The Doctor's eyes widened. "Clara told me your stories."

"She should not have told you any of that."

He shrugged. "Well, well, once the story started, she could hardly stop herself." He looked at Adelaide again. "You, alone among your people, took to the universe to search for knowledge. A noble cause of your own, my lady. You're both her heroes, I think."

Adelaide shook her head. "We're not heroes." The Doctor, perhaps, the Doctor could be a hero. But not her. Never her.

"Well, neither am I. But if we all keep pretending to be...perhaps others will be heroes in our name. Perhaps we will all be stories. And may those stories never end." He held out his hand, shaking the Doctor's hand before Adelaide's. And while his words seemed to comfort the Doctor slightly, it did not Adelaide. "Goodbye, Doctor and Adelaide, Time Lords of Gallifrey."

"Goodbye, Robin Hood, Earl of Loxley."

Robin grinned. "And remember, I'm just as real as you are." He gave them a wink, stepping back into a bow.

The Time Lords nodded, turning to enter the TARDIS where Clara was waiting. "Admit it," Clara called. "You like him."

"Well," the Doctor shrugged, "we're leaving him a present, aren't we?"

"Did Adelaide make you?"

"It was my idea, I'll have you know!"

Clara just laughed.

 **A/N: A happy ending to what has turned out to be a happy episode. These Time Lords certainly deserve a period of calm :)**


	7. To Be Together

**To Be Together**

"Question," the Doctor said, taking a small spin on the upper levels of the console. "Why do we talk out loud when we know we're alone?" he leaned to the side, blowing out a candle. "Conjecture. Because we know we're not." He wrote on his blackboard. "Evolution perfects survival skills. There are perfect hunters. There is perfect defense. Question," he pointed down at the console, where Adelaide was reading. "Why is there no such thing as perfect hiding? Answer: how would you know?"

"Logically," she said casually, clearly not paying complete attention to this conversation, "if evolution were to perfect a creature whose primary skill was to hide from view, it would be impossible to know if it existed."

He nodded, putting down his chalk. "It could be with us every second and we would never know. How would you detect it, even sense it, except in those moments when for no clear reason you choose to speak aloud? What would such a creature want? What would it do?"

The word echoed around the TARDIS, and when the Doctor looked back at the blackboard he found that it now just said 'Listen'. "Adelaide..."

Adelaide looked up, spotting what was on the board. "Are you honestly suggesting..."

He leaned on the railing, grinning. "It's a mystery."

"That's not fair."

|C-S|

When Clara's bedroom door opened, just hitting the side of the TARDIS that the Doctor had insisted they park in her bedroom, Clara's head followed a few seconds later. "You just have to squeeze through," the Doctor called, sitting at Clara's dressing table.

"Doctor?" Clara frowned. "Adelaide?"

"Why do you have three mirrors? Why don't you just turn your head?"

Clara looked at Adelaide, who was leaning against the bit of the TARDIS the door wouldn't hit. "What are you doing in here?"

"You said you had a date and the Doctor insisted that we should hide in the bedroom in case you brought him home." Adelaide sighed. "His words."

"Bit early, aren't you?" the Doctor glanced at Clara. "Did it all go wrong, or is this good by your standards?"

"You don't have to talk about it," Adelaide called when Clara opened her mouth. "I've never been on a date, but I understand it's not always a nice thing to discuss."

"Especially when you look like you do," the Doctor said.

"What? What's wrong with how I look?" Clara frowned. "Wait, you've never been on a date?"

"We need you," the Doctor interrupted, standing. "For a thing."

She shook her head. "I can't."

"Oh, of course, you can. Come on, you're free. More than usually free, in fact."

"No, it's just possible that I might get a phone call."

"From the date guy?" the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "It's too late. You've taken your makeup off."

"No, I haven't. I'm still wearing my makeup.'

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, right. Well, you probably just missed a bit." He gestured at her face, moving over to Adelaide. "Come on, come on, come on, come on."

Adelaide opened the door, both Time Lords stepping inside. Clara followed them with her shoes in hand. "I haven't actually said yes?"

"Yes, you know sometimes when you talk to yourself, what if you're not?" the Doctor asked, pausing by the console.

"Not what?"

"What if it's not you you're talking to? Proposition." He pointed at her. "What if no one is ever really alone? What if every single living being has a companion, a silent passenger, a shadow? What if the prickle on the back of your neck, is the breath of something close behind you?"

Clara, after frowning at him, looked to Adelaide. "How long has he been awake?"

"A rather reasonable time for Time Lords, actually."

"Look," the Doctor gestured Clara over, showing her the blackboard that he swore he hadn't written on.

"It looks like your handwriting."

"Well, I couldn't have written it and forgotten, could I?"

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Have you met you?" She moved closer to the table to the side, which was covered in books to the point she was surprised Adelaide had allowed it. "What's all this?"

"Dreams." Adelaide walked up too. "Accounts of dreams, by different people, all through history. He..."

"We."

"We have a theory." Clara glanced at her. "I helped with the research."

"I'll bet you did. What theory?"

The Doctor moved to the other side of the table. "I think everybody, at some point in their lives, has the exact same nightmare. You wake up, or you think you do, and there's someone in the dark, someone close, or you think there might be. So you sit up and turn on the light. And the room looks different at night. It ticks and creaks and breathes. And you tell yourself there's nobody there, nobody watching, nobody listening, nobody there at all. And you very nearly believe it. You really, really try and then..." he made a grabbing move at Clara. "Something grabs you.

"There are accounts of that dream repeated throughout human history," Adelaide said. "Possibly a coincidence."

"Or possibly not." The Doctor moved around the table, facing Clara straight on. "Now, there is a very obvious question I'm about to ask you. Do you know what it is?"

"Have you had that dream?"

The Doctor nodded. "Exactly."

"No, that was me asking you. Have you had that dream?"

He frowned. "I asked first."

"No, I did."

"You really didn't."

Clara sighed. "Okay, yeah, probably. Yes." She shook her head. "But everyone dreams about something under the bed."

"But why?"

The Doctor took Clara's hand, pulling her back towards the console and a particularly mush-like section of the console. "Just hold on tight. If anything bites, let it." He pressed her fingers into it.

"What is it?"

"TARDIS telepathic interface. You are now in mental contact with the TARDIS, so don't think anything rude."

Clara frowned. "Why not?"

"It might end up on all of the screens," Adelaide called. "And I'd rather not see that."

"The TARDIS is extrapolating your entire timeline, from the moment of your birth to the moment of your death."

Her eyes widened. "Which I do not need a preview of."

"We're turning off the safeguards and navigation, slaving the TARDIS to you," the Doctor explained, hurrying around the console to work. "Focus on the dream. Focus on the details. Picture them, feel them. The TARDIS will track on your subconscious and extract the relevant information. It should be able to home in on the moment in your timeline when you first had that dream. And then, we'll see."

Clara frowned. "What will we see?"

"What's under your bed." He flicked a lever, both Time Lords hurrying to grab onto the console as the ship went flying.

"Ooo!" Clara cheered, laughing.

"Don't get distracted," Adelaide called. "Remember, you're currently the only one flying the TARDIS." Clara glanced to the side as her phone started to ring. "No, Clara. You need to focus."

The Doctor pressed something on the console, making the TARDIS land with a thud. "Okay, that's good," he said, nodding. "That worked. We're here.'

"Sorry, I think I got distracted."

"No, no, no, no, no, the date's fine." The Doctor moved towards the door. "Come on."

"Come on where?"

"Your childhood." He held the TARDIS door open for Adelaide, the pair of them vanishing out into the night. Clara followed a few seconds later after she managed to pull herself free from the interface. "The West Country Children's Home," he said, looking up at the building they'd landed before. "Gloucester. By the ozone levels and the drains, mid-nineties. You must have been here when you had the dream."

But Clara shook her head. "Never been to Gloucester in my life and I've never lived in a children's home."

The Doctor shrugged. "You've probably just forgotten. Have you seen the size of human brains? They're hilarious." He gestured at the building. "Little you must be in here somewhere, with your little brain."

"Isn't it bad if I meet myself?"

Adelaide nodded. "Potentially catastrophic."

"So why did you bring me out here?"

"I was still talking. I needed someone to nod."

"Adelaide?"

"She argues."

Adelaide shook her head. "Likely best for you to wait in the TARDIS for the moment Clara, sorry."

"But..."

The Doctor shook a finger at her. "See you in a minute. TARDIS." He moved back, towards the building, but Clara stepped forward too.

"If I had been distracted, what would have happened?"

"We would probably have ended up in the wrong place. But don't think we have, because the time zone's right." He started walking again. "We won't be long."

"Adelaide, I have honestly never been to Gloucester in my life."

She frowned. "Who was calling you?"

"Someone from work."

The Time Lady raised her eyebrows. The Doctor had kept walking, having decided he didn't want to bother waiting for her when she'd be coming anyway. "Then we are in an odd situation because I don't believe that we should have been able to end up on their timeline when you were the one plugged into the TARDIS."

"Then what's happened?"

"The Doctor and I shall endeavor to find out." Adelaide started walking backward too, going after where the Doctor had. "Stay here anyways. Unless a child is crying."

"Is that your rule?"

Adelaide gave a little smile. "The Doctor said it on our first traveling adventure together." With a final nod, the Time Lady turned and jogged to meet the Doctor, who'd stopped by the door to wait for her.

"What were you two discussing?"

"None of your business." Adelaide stepped forward, used her sonic on the door, and held it open for him.

"Breaking and entering?"

"Sonicing and entering. Totally different."

The Doctor pointed at her, grinning, before entering the building. They both used their sonics to scan the surrounding area as they walked down the corridor. It wasn't far before they found the security man. "How did you get in?" the man asked, catching sight of them in a reflection.

"Your door must be faulty." The Doctor held up his psychic paper.

"An inspection? It's two in the morning!"

He shrugged. "When better? Do you always work here nights?"

The guard nodded. "Most nights, yes."

"Do you ever end up talking to yourself?"

"All the time." The man looked around. "It's this place. You can't help it."

"What about your coffee?"

The man frowned. "My coffee?" he looked over at the mug he'd put down when he'd stood to address them.

"Sometimes, do you put it down, and look around, and it's not there?"

He shrugged. "Everybody does that."

"Yes. Everybody." The television he'd been watching appeared to shut itself off. "Who turned your telly off?"

"It does that. It just goes off." The guard looked back at the television, allowing the Time Lords to step away to continue their search. Somehow, the Doctor managed to find a way to steal his coffee, which had Adelaide shaking her head.

|C-S|

They'd just entered one of the upper floors when they heard Clara speaking. The Doctor looked slightly put out about that, but the two of them still moved to follow Clara's voice. Especially once it became clear that something was wrong. "Okay..." Clara was saying, her voice shaking slightly. "It's not funny this, you know."

The Time Lords rushed into the room, Adelaide staying near the doorway, eyes on the bedspread covered figure in the center of the bed that Clara and a little boy were staring at, and the Doctor moving to a nearby chair. It was his sonic that turned on the lights, making the two humans jump.

"Where is he?" the Doctor frowned, flicking through a book.

"Doctor?"

"I can't find him. Can you find him?"

Clara shook her head. "Find who?"

"Wally."

"Wally?"

He nodded at the book he was holding. "He's nowhere in this book."

The boy with Clara frowned. "It's not a Where's Wally one."

"Well, how would you know? Maybe you just haven't found him yet."

The boy shook his head. "He's not in every book."

"Really?" the Doctor looked at Adelaide like he was honestly upset she'd never mentioned this fact to him before. "Well, there's a few years of my life I'll be needing back." He fixed his attention on the boy again. "Are you scared? The thing on the bed, whatever it is, look at it. Does it scare you?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's good. Want to know why that's good?"

"Why?"

The Doctor moved out of the chair, moving so that he was closer to the boy's height. Adelaide and Clara stepped closer together. "Let me tell you about scared. Your heart is beating so hard," he took the boy's hands, "I can feel it through your hands. There's so much blood and oxygen pumping through your brain, it's like rocket fuel. Right now, you could run faster and you could fight harder. You could jump higher than ever in your life. And you are so alert, it's like you can slow down time. What's wrong with scared? Scared is a superpower. It's your superpower. There is danger in this room and guess what? It's you. Do you feel it? Do you think he feels it? Do you think he's scared? Nah. Loser. Turn your back on him."

"What?"

"Yeah, turn your back on him. Come on. You too, Adelaide, Clara. Turn your back." He moved to the window, turning his back to the bed. "Do it. Just do it now. Turn your back. Do it now, turn your back. Lovely view out this window."

Adelaide and Clara moved to stand beside him, with the boy joining them a few seconds later. "Yeah," Clara said, nodding. "Come and see all the dark."

"The deep and lovely dark." The Doctor, reaching behind Clara and the boy, took Adelaide's hand for a second, giving it a small squeeze. "We'd never see the stars without it."

"There are two possibilities," Adelaide whispered. "Possibility one, that's just one of your friends standing there pranking you. Possibility two, it isn't."

"So, plan?" Clara asked. "Plans are good."

"You on the bed, I'm talking to you now," the Doctor said, addressing the figure without turning around. "Go in peace. We won't look. Just go. If all you want to do is stay hidden, it's okay. Just leave."

They could still see the reflection in the mirror, the figure moving closer to them. "Is it gone?" Clara whispered.

"Use your eyes."

"I can't hear anything," the boy frowned.

The Doctor grabbed his shoulder as the boy moved to turn. "Look away! Look away now! Don't look at it! Don't look round. Don't look round. Don't look at the reflection."

"What is it?" the figure started to pull the blanket off itself.

"Imagine a thing that must never be seen. What would it do if you saw it?"

"I don't know."

"Neither do we. Close your eyes," Adelaide ordered, her and the Doctor doing just that.

"What?"

The Doctor nodded. "Close your eyes. You too, Clara. Give it what it wants. Prove to it that you're not going to look at it. Make a promise. A promise you're never going to look at it."

The boy closed his eyes. "I promise never to look."

"The breath on the back of your neck, like your hair's standing on end. That means, don't look round."

They heard the door slam shut. "Gone."

The Doctor nodded, spinning to look. "Gone."

The boy frowned at his bed. "He took my bedspread."

"Oh, the human race," the Doctor groaned. "You're never happy, are you?" He, Adelaide, and Clara started to investigate the room, though the Doctor got particularly interested in an orange robot.

"Am I safe now?"

"Nobody's safe."

"Especially not at night in the dark," Adelaide mumbled. "Anything can get you."

The Doctor nodded. "And all the way up here, you're up here all alone." Clara hit the back of the Doctor's head. "What was that for?" He paused. "Why didn't you hit Adelaide?"

"Because I like her more. Now shut up, leave this to me." Clara found a small box of soldier toys. "These yours?"

"They're the home's."

"They're yours now."

The Doctor stepped closer to her. "People don't need to be lied to."

"People don't need to be scared by a big gray-haired stick insect and a short ginger woman, but here you two are."

"I thought you liked Adelaide more."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Stay still, shut up, both of you." She went to her knees, placing the toy soldiers around the boy's bed. "See what I'm doing? This is your army."

"Plastic army," the Doctor mumbled.

"Sit." Clara pointed at the chair the Doctor had been sitting in before, the Time Lord taking a resigned seat. Adelaide just leaned against the bookcase; close to the Doctor, but not touching him. "And they're going to guard under your bed. You see this one?" she held up one that had a few parts, including the weapon, snapped off. "This is the boss one, the colonel. He's going to keep a special eye out."

The boy frowned. "It's broken, that one. It doesn't have a gun."

Clara nodded. "That's why he's the boss. A soldier so brave he doesn't need a gun. He can keep the whole world safe. What shall we call him?"

"Dan."

Clara started. "Sorry?"

"Dan, the soldier man. That's what I call him." He took the toy from Clara, looking it over.

"Good. Good name."

He smiled. "Yeah. Would you read me a story? It'll help me get to sleep."

"Sure."

But before Clara could get a book from the case, the Doctor had stepped forward and touched the boy's forehead. "Once upon a time..." the boy fell back, asleep. "The end." He glanced at Clara. "Dad skills."

|C-S|

"So is it possible we've just saved that kid from another kid in a bedspread?" Clara asked, leaning against the console as the Time Lords stood around. It had been quite an event getting back to the TARDIS, as Adelaide had tried to make the Doctor return the coffee he'd stolen and the man had kept trying to get around doing it.

The Doctor nodded. "Entirely possible, yes. The bigger question is, why did we end up with him and not you?"

Clara shrugged. "I got distracted."

"But why that particular boy? You don't have any. You don't have any kind of connection with him, do you?"

Clara shook her head far too quickly for either Time Lord to honestly believe she was telling the truth. "No. No, no, no. Of course not. Why do you ask?"

"The TARDIS was slaved to your timeline." The Doctor pointed to Adelaide.

"What?"

"You're in charge of theories."

She gave him a small smile for that before looking at Clara again. "Theoretically, there would need to be some connection between you and that boy."

Clara nodded. "Will...er...will he remember any of that?"

"Scrambled his memory," the Doctor said. "Gave him a big old dream about being Dan the soldier man." Clara looked down, tears forming in her eyes. "Are you okay?" both Time Lords frowned at her.

"Doctor, Adelaide, I am sorry to ask...and...you know, I realize this is probably against the laws of time...or summat...er...could you do me a favor?"

 **A/N: Another sweeter opening here. Seems the Time Lords really have hit their stride in adventuring, at least for a little :)**


	8. To Be Alone

**To Be Alone**

It turned out that Clara's favor was to go back and redo the ending of her date. As they left her to do that, the Time Lords decided to try and use the remnants of her link to find the dream in her timeline. Instead, they ended up finding a man trapped at the end of the universe who'd apparently time traveled there.

And, honestly, he looked remarkably similar to that little boy they'd found last time.

Almost instantly, they went back to get Clara again. They sent the man, Orson Pink, to fetch her...though it was really the Doctor who sent him since he'd distracted Adelaide so that she didn't insist she be the one to go. It was only once Orson was gone that she seemed to realize what had happened and just looked at him with raised eyebrows, which made him smirk.

"I am trying to have a date," Clara said, storming into the TARDIS just after Orson had arrived, though she seemed to have not yet realized that it wasn't the Doctor she was talking too, as Orson was still in his spacesuit. "A real life, inter-human actual date! It's a normal, nice, everyday, meeting-up sort of thing. And I would just like to know, is there any other way you can make this anymore surreal than it actually is?"

It turned out they could, given Clara's face when Orson pulled off his helmet. "Hello."

"Ah, Clara!" the Doctor cheered, hurrying around the console and away from Adelaide's head-shaking. "Well done, you found her! Now, this is really a bit strange."

"Danny?" Clara asked Orson.

The Doctor frowned at Clara. "What's gone wrong with your face? It's all eyes! Why are you all eyes? Get them under control." There was a beat, where the Doctor didn't even need to look at Adelaide to know what she would say. "Sorry."

"Better, but not enough," Adelaide called.

Orson looked between the Time Lords and Clara. "Er, who's Danny?"

"This is Colonel Orson Pink," Adelaide introduced, "from about a hundred years in your future."

"Orson Pink?"

"Yeah, I laughed too," the Doctor nodded. "Adelaide got mad."

"That's why it's not enough." Adelaide stepped around the other side of the console. "Do you have any connection with him that you know of? Or you," she looked at Orson, "with her? Any stories of distant relatives?"

"Have any old family photographs of her?" the Doctor asked. "You know, probably quite old and really fat-looking?"

Orson shook his head. "I don't."

"How did you find him?"

"Well, you left a trace in the TARDIS telepathic circuits. We fired them up again and the TARDIS brought us straight to him. So he is something to do with your timeline. Not fixed events, but something."

Clara nodded. "Okay."

"And you'll never guess where we found him."

|C-S|

They'd found Orson in what could best be described as a shuttle. Seeing it had surprised Adelaide that she and the Master had honestly thought it'd be a reliable plan to find rudimentary time travel rather than each keeping some small Time Lord technology for themselves. Of course, the Master had been the main one who would require some time travel and he was the one with the most experience with that sort of thing, as Adelaide would have access to her TARDIS.

Clara frowned when she stepped out of the TARDIS, taking in the small ship. "Where are we?"

"The end of the road." The Doctor walked up to a nearby window. "This is it, the end of everything. The last planet."

"The end of the universe?"

He nodded. "The TARDIS isn't supposed to come this far, but some idiot turned the safeguards off." Clara glanced at Adelaide, expecting the Time Lady to say something about that, but the woman just nodded back to the Doctor. "Listen."

"To what?"

"Nothing." He turned. "There's nothing to hear. There's nothing anywhere. Not a breath, not a slither, not a click or a tick. All the clocks have stopped. This is the silence at the end of time."

Clara glanced at Orson, who'd started putting the quantities of an entire locker into a bag. "Then how did he get here? If he's from a hundred years in my future..."

"Pioneer time traveler," Adelaide said, stepping up to a nearby computer and sonicing it to show Clara the news about Orson's journey. "Rode the first time shot. I believe they were aiming for the middle of the next week."

"What happened?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "He went a bit far."

Clara laughed. "A bit?"

"A big bit. Look at him now." They all looked over at Orson. "Robinson Crusoe at the end of time itself. The last man standing in the universe." He paused. "I always thought that would be me."

"Far more likely that it would be me," Adelaide mumbled, making him look at her. "I can stay stationary and alone for just a bit longer than you."

"Christmas?"

"Shakri?"

"Not a competition?" Clara laughed.

"Of course not, because then I'd win."

The Doctor stuck his tongue out for that.

Clara just shook her head. "He looks like he's packing."

"He's been stranded for six months, just met two time travelers. Of course he's packing."

Orson walked back into the room, bag in hand. "You can do it, then? You can get me home?"

"We just showed you, didn't we? A test flight to a restaurant."

"Yes, but to my family, to my own time?"

The Doctor waved a hand. "Easy. We can do that, can't we, Clara?"

"She can, yes."

"Oi!"

"With his help."

Orson frowned at Clara and the way she was staring at him. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, fine. I'm fine."

"Do I know you?"

"No." Clara shook her head. "Nope."

"Is she doing the all eyes thing?" the Doctor, who'd pulled Adelaide off once Orson had walked up in order to show her something he'd spotted in the shuttle, called over. "It's because her face is so wide. She needs three mirrors."

Clara didn't glance over. "Adelaide?"

The Time Lady sighed. "You know, sometimes I do get tired of constantly trying to remind him of his manners. There's a reason I never became a mother. Too much responsibility."

"Are you saying you're my mother?" the Doctor asked, frowning.

"I'm saying that your mother should have taught you better."

He grinned before turning to Clara and Orson, both of whom were eyeing the Time Lords with raised eyebrows. "We can't leave immediately. The TARDIS needs to recharge."

Clara shook her head. "Sorry. What?"

"Overnight, that should do it, shouldn't it, Adelaide?"

"Overnight?" Clara asked.

He glanced at Orson. "One more night. That's...that's not a problem, is it?"

Orson took a breath, looking obviously like he didn't want to say it was fine. "No. No, no problem."

"It's a shame, isn't it?" the Doctor glanced out the window again.

"What's a shame?"

"There's only four people left in the universe and you're lying to the other three. Not a good way to endear yourself to Adelaide. She doesn't like it when people lie."

Adelaide shook her head. "Did you notice it, Clara?"

"Notice what?"

"If the universe is dead, if everything that ever was is dead, if there's nothing beyond that door," she nodded to it, "but nothingness, forever, then why is it locked?"

Orson shook his head, stepping forward. "Please, don't make me spend another night here."

"Afraid of the dark? But the dark is empty now."

"No. No, it isn't."

The Doctor grinned.

|C-S|

While Clara and Orson carried his things into the TARDIS, not able to stand another night in the shuttle if he didn't have to, the two Time Lords did their various tasks. The Doctor worked on the console while Adelaide stared out the window, frowning at the nothingness.

She knew she was afraid of the dark for very irrational reasons, but she also kept telling herself that she was actually afraid of the unknown. That she was afraid of not knowing.

For Caroline, that had manifested as fear of what she couldn't see. A fear of the Vashta Nerada, a fear of not speaking until she was certain about what she was going to say.

For Adelaide, it meant that she wanted to solve the mystery. It meant that she was terrified of what would happen if she didn't manage it fast enough.

It was why this proposal of the Doctor's had been so interesting. She was almost certain that the creature he'd described didn't actually exist, but no good scientist completely discounted something until there was ample evidence, and even then she would always hold open the possibility. While she was certain that it would actually be impossible to know if such a creature existed or not, that didn't stop her from wanting to try.

After all, the creature from Midnight had been real, whatever that had been. Perhaps it was one of these things, perfectly adapted to survive.

She wanted to solve the mystery. Not knowing wasn't fun.

Adelaide very much wanted to know if there was a creature that had perfectly evolved to hide.

Clara stepped out of the TARDIS and looked between the two of them, crossing her arms. "What are we doing?"

"Waiting."

"For what?" Clara scoffed. "For who? If everybody in the universe is dead, then there's nobody out there."

Adelaide shrugged, not turning. "That's one way to think about it."

"What's the other?"

"That's a hell of a lot of ghosts." The Doctor held up his sonic, dimming the lights.

Clara looked around, sighing. "Do you have your own mood lighting now? Because, frankly, the accent is enough." She looked at Adelaide, who stepped aside to reveal what was written on the door: do not open the door. "Where did that come from?"

"It's always been there," Adelaide said. "Only visible in the night lights."

"But who wrote it?"

"Colonel Pink. Apparently, at night, he needs a reminder. Six months stranded alone, I suppose it must be tempting."

Clara frowned. "What is?"

The shuttle creaked. "Company."

Clara looked up, taking a breath. "What's that?"

"What kind of explanation would you like?"

She glanced at him. "A reassuring one?"

"The systems are switching to low power," Adelaide said. "There are temperature differentials all over the ship."

"It's like pipes banging when the heating goes off."

"Always thought there was something in the pipes."

"Me too." The three of them exchanged a look. "Who were you having dinner with?"

Clara frowned. "Did Adelaide tell you to make conversation?"

"For once, no."

He shrugged. "I thought that I would give it a try."

"I told you. A date."

"Serious?"

Clara nodded. "It's a date."

"A serious date?"

"Do I have to bring him to the two of you for approval?"

The Doctor didn't seem to sense the taunting quality in her voice. "Well, I would like to know about his prospects. If you like, we can pop ahead and check them out."

Clara sighed. "Frankly, you've already done enough."

There was a particularly strange sound that honestly sounded like a scream that made all three of them jump.

Adelaide stepped a bit closer to the Doctor. "Atmospheric pressure equalizing?"

"Or?"

The Doctor grinned. "Company."

"Why are we doing this? Why don't we just go?"

The Time Lords moved even closer together. "Because we need to know."

"Why? About what?"

"Suppose that there are creatures that live to hide. That only show themselves to the very young or the very old, or the mad, or anyone who wouldn't be believed." Clara nodded, opening her mouth to speak, but the Doctor kept speaking. "What would those creatures do when everyone was gone? When there was only one man left standing in the universe?"

There were three very loud bangs that made the Time Lords grab each other's hands.

This was Midnight. This was a bus, a shuttle.

Only this time, there wasn't a group of humans to combat. There was just them, stronger than ever.

That didn't stop them from needing each other right at that moment.

"What's that?"

"Potentially, the hull cooling."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Potentially?"

"Believably."

Three more bangs.

"Someone knocking."

Three more.

The two turned to the door. "Yes." Three more. And three scrapes.

"Doctor, Adelaide..." Clara breathed. Three bangs. "You don't actually believe all this, do you? Hiding creatures, things from under the bed."

Three more.

"What's that in the mirror, or the corner of your eye? What's that footstep following but never passing by?"

Three more.

Clara stepped closer to them, narrowing her eyes. "Did we come to the end of the universe because of a nursery rhyme?" Six bangs that time, the Time Lords stopping right in front of the door. The Doctor held up his sonic, flicking it on, but then the wheel started to turn. "That's you turning it, right?"

The Time Lords tightened their grips on each other. "No. Get in the TARDIS."

"Why?"

"I have to know," he breathed. "We have to."

"Adelaide."

"Please, Clara."

That surprised Clara. She knew the Time Lady was curious, knew that this concept was something that intrigued her. But she'd thought that Adelaide wouldn't let it get this far. She'd thought Adelaide was reasonable enough to stop the Doctor from doing something this stupid.

That's always what she'd done in the past. That was what Adelaide was known for. Stopping the Doctor in his tracks. Forcing him to keep his emotions in check.

He was the Oncoming Storm and she was his Protector. She was the Protector.

She was the one meant to stop him.

But she wasn't.

"Okay, okay. Somebody is out there. Now we know, we can leave. Adelaide! Doctor!"

"It's a pressure lock," the Doctor breathed. "Releasing it could've triggered the opening mechanism."

Clara glanced out the window. "Is there even an atmosphere out there?"

"There is an air shell around the ship," Adelaide said.

The Doctor glanced at Clara, frowning. "Why are you still here?"

"Because I am not going to leave either of you in danger!"

"Then you will never travel with us again, because that is the deal! TARDIS, now!" he narrowed his eyes. "Do as you are told!"

Clara stared at them, disbelieving, before turning and running to the TARDIS, stopping in the doorway. "You're idiots. Both of you." She stepped into the TARDIS, closing the door behind her.

The Time Lords looked back to the door. "I know," the Doctor said. "Perhaps they're all just waiting, perhaps when we're all dead, out they'll come a slithering from underneath the bed."

The door opened into the vacuum outside.

The air shell had broken when they opened their door.

But the Time Lords, even Adelaide, didn't care. As everything in the shuttle rushed out the door, pulled out into nothingness, they clung to the edges of the console and looked. Searched. Hunted.

It was only when Orson grabbed their wrists and pulled that they reached the safety of the TARDIS interior, the man saving Adelaide first.

The moment she was inside, she bent over her knees, clutching her chest and breathing hard as her body readapted to normal pressure. She could barely register what was happening with Clara and Orson and the Doctor; there was a ringing in her ears. She didn't really know why, but she was thankful for it.

It was sharp enough to cut through her thoughts, to force her to focus.

To force her to acknowledge her mistake.

She loved mysteries. She wanted to know if the creature the Doctor had suggested could possibly exist. But what she'd done, what they'd done...she should have known that it was stupid. That there were other ways.

But sometimes, even she had taken risks to learn something new. Sometimes, she pushed herself to the brink in order to discover something.

Sometimes, she didn't stop when she knew she should.

"Adelaide?" Clara's voice cut through the ringing and, slowly, Adelaide forced herself to look up and meet the human's eyes. "We need to pilot. We need to go away."

The cloister bell tolled.

"Use the telepathic circuits again."

"Can't you pilot?"

' _Leave me alone.'_

"Not now." Adelaide shook her head. The ringing was back and Adelaide was fairly certain she'd been hit in the ear by some bit of debris that had been being sucked out of the shuttle. "I can't focus."

Clara nodded, straightening. "Alright. I can do this."

Orson frowned at her, following her up to the console. The two Time Lords were left on the lower level, Adelaide now able to see that the Doctor was unconscious. "Have you got a plan?"

"Telepathic circuits. I left a trace in them before."

"So?"

"So apparently, that can do a thing." Clara pressed her hands into the circuits again.

"What, that's your plan?"

Clara smirked. "It's not a plan, it's a thing."

The rotor started to stutter into motion. Adelaide, honestly, wasn't certain what Clara doing this would do, but she was almost confident that the human's life was safe enough that wherever they went would be better than a shuttle at the end of the universe. Then they could wait for the Doctor to wake and for them both to ensure that they hadn't been seriously injured.

"Okay," Clara breathed. "Come on, come on, you can do it! Come on!" The TARDIS started to fly, flying properly with just Clara piloting via the telepathic circuits. "Here we go! Come on. Come on!"

The TARDIS landed with a rather loud thud. The cloister bell stopped, sending them all into silence.

"Is that it?" Orson asked, sounding uneasy.

Adelaide finally managed to straighten, the ringing finally ending.

"I don't know." Clara glanced at the scanner, which showed nothing, and then at Adelaide. "I think so."

"Where are we?"

Clara shrugged. "Somewhere else. I hope." She moved towards the door, but held up a hand when Orson moved to follow. "No, no, no, you stay and look after the Doctor and Adelaide."

"You can't go out there by yourself."

"Thing is, my timeline, it keeps on." She shook her head. "Orson, you don't want to meet yourself. It's really embarrassing." She reached where Adelaide was again. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Adelaide nodded at the door. "You go out. See where we are."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I'll stay with Orson and the Doctor."

Clara stepped out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind her. Adelaide just walked up to the Doctor, using her sonic on the man to ensure he was alright. It was only a few seconds after that that he jolted awake, grabbing onto her arms and clinging to her. "Sontarans! Perverting the course of human history!"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Doctor, you're safe."

He studied her face. "Are you safe?"

"Yes, Doctor. Even if you were an idiot." He frowned. "Even if we were idiots."

The Doctor reached up one of his hands, touching her face. "I'm sorry."

Their faces were quite close to each other in that moment. The Doctor hadn't kissed her in this regeneration yet - he hadn't needed to shock her, as had tended to spark their first kisses. She'd never asked, and he hadn't either. He hadn't wanted to, fulfilled with other expressions of physical intimacy.

Perhaps it was because they were practically alone in the TARDIS, with the only other person making a point to look away and give them their privacy, but Adelaide decided that she definitely wanted to kiss the Doctor in that moment. It was one of the first times that had happened in this regeneration, one of the only times that had ever happened in her life.

"May I kiss you, Doctor?" she asked quietly.

The Doctor's response was to lean up, her helping to close the distance.

They kissed, just kissed, and Adelaide felt happy.

|C-S|

Outside of the TARDIS, Clara sat on a bed in a barn in the dark and gave a little boy a dream.

"This is just a dream," she said quietly. "But very clever people can hear dreams. So, please, just listen. I know you're afraid, but being afraid is all right. Because didn't anybody ever tell you? Fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster and cleverer and stronger. And one day, you're going to come back to this barn. And on that day you're going to be very afraid indeed. But that's okay. Because if you're very wise and very strong, fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly. Fear can make you kind.

"It doesn't matter if there's nothing under the bed or in the dark, so long as you know it's okay to be afraid of it. And that's something you'll need to learn, something you'll need to help the most wonderful woman in the universe understand. So, listen. If you listen to nothing else, listen to this. You're always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like a companion. A constant companion, always there. But that's okay, because fear can bring us together. Fear can bring you home. I'm going to leave you something, just so you'll always remember, fear makes companions of us all."

|C-S|

By the time Clara stepped back into the TARDIS, the Time Lords were back by the console, standing apart, but one look at their expressions told Clara what they'd done. And if that hadn't given it away, looking at Orson would have.

"What happened?" Orson asked, looking eager to have Clara back given the Time Lords complete lack of acknowledgment of him. "What did you see? What's out there?"

But Clara didn't keep looking at him. She stepped up to the Time Lords, Adelaide moving around the console so that she was beside the Doctor. "What if there was nothing? What if there never was anything? Nothing under the bed, nothing at the door. What if the big bad Time Lords don't want to admit they just don't want to be alone?"

The Doctor frowned. "Where are we?" the scanner hadn't started working again yet. "Have we moved? Where have we landed?"

"Don't look where we are. Take off and promise me you will never look where we've been."

Adelaide frowned. "Why?"

"Just take off. Don't ask questions."

"We don't take well to orders."

Clara kept her expression fixed, looking at them sternly. "Do as you're told."

It took the Time Lords a moment before they stepped apart again, setting the TARDIS into motion.

Together.

 **A/N: Felt it was important that Adelaide be forced to face the fact that she can do things as dangerous as the Doctor. You need to face your fears to become stronger, after all, and Adelaide needs to be a stronger Protector in days to come ;)**


	9. Final Five

**Final Five**

Adelaide glanced over at where the Doctor was standing watching Clara's laundry go around the machine. It was a testament to how bored he was that he was being entertained by that. She was reading through an essay for Clara, as despite the fact Adelaide hadn't been an English teacher Clara had just wanted someone else's opinion and neither had trusted the Doctor to be any help. Besides, the student had decided to take a slightly scientific approach, so Adelaide was more than equipped to help with that aspect.

"The Satanic Nebula," the Doctor offered, having occasionally shouted out places they could go that would be far more entertaining than whatever Clara was currently getting ready for. "Or the lagoon of lost stars. Or we could go to Brighton. I've got a whole day worked out..."

"Sorry," Clara stepped into her doorway, "but as you can see," she gestured at her clothing, "I've got plans."

The Doctor turned to look at her. "Have you?"

"Look at me."

"Yeah...okay."

"No, no, no, no. Look at me."

He nodded. "Yep, looking."

Clara shook her head. "Seriously?"

Adelaide glanced over too, finishing her final page of jotted down notes. "Use your eyes, Doctor."

He frowned. "Why is your face all colored in? Are you taller?"

Clara gestured at her feet. "Heels."

"What, do you have to reach a high shelf?"

"Right," Clara stepped past him, "got to go. Going to be late."

"For a shelf?"

Clara shook her head, passing Adelaide. "Thank you for your help and bye."

"Enjoy your date." After all, even if Adelaide had never been on one herself, not really, not the kind that humans had, she knew enough to recognize all of the signs.

A phone rang, quickly identified as the TARDIS, which was a bit surprising since it tended to be Adelaide's that rang. "There you go, you've got another playmate."

But both Time Lords were frowning at the phone. There was a reason they gave Adelaide's number out to people instead of the TARDIS. "Hardly anyone in the universe has that number."

"Well, I've got it," Clara shrugged.

"Yes, from some woman in a shop. We still don't know who that was or why she gave you that one."

Clara frowned. "Is that her now?"

The Doctor shrugged, stepping closer to the TARDIS. "There are very few people that it could be."

He moved to answer it, but Clara cut him off. "Don't."

Adelaide turned to her. "Why not?"

"Because, if you answer it, something will happen."

"And?"

"It'll be a thing."

The Doctor shook his head. "It's just a phone, Clara." He stepped aside, gesturing for Adelaide to answer it. "Nothing happens when you answer the phone." Adelaide picked up the receiver.

|C-S|

The three of them jolted, blinking, as they woke on one side of a table in a dark room with two others on the other side. There were worms, memory worms, in all of their hands, which they all threw down in disgust.

"Doctor?" Clara said, breathing hard.

"Don't touch it."

"Where are we? How did we get here?"

The man across from them, with pieces of technology grafted to his face, shook his head. "Who are you? Sorry, what's going on? I don't understand."

The woman, her face bulging in what looked like an imitation of the worm's horns, made a face. "Argh! What is that thing?"

"A memory worm," Adelaide said.

"What happened to your face?"

"Deletes your memories..." she continued.

"Did you see her face?" Clara asked.

"Are you honestly asking me that, Clara?"

The woman looked around the room. "How did I get here?"

"The same way we all did," the Doctor said, "but we've all forgotten."

"And who are you?"

There was a crackle and a speaker went on somewhere in the room. "I am the Doctor, a Time Lord from Gallifrey." It was clearly a recording. "I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will."

"I am Adelaide," her turn, "a Time Lady from Gallifrey. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will."

"I am Clara Oswald, human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will. Do I really have to touch that worm thing?"

"Yes, you do," the recording of the Doctor said. "And change your shoes. You're next, Psi."

"I am Psi, augmented human," the man. "I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will." He took a chip from his head, studying it for a moment.

"I am Saibra," the woman, "mutant human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will."

Once it went silent, the case in the middle of the table clicked open, emitting a golden light. There were two screens, one on either side of the table, with an electronically manipulated voice speaking. "This is a recorded message. I am the Architect. Your last memory is of receiving a contact from an unknown agency. Me. Everything since has been erased from your minds. Now, pay close attention to this briefing." The image switched to a planet that seemed to be comprised of a singular building. "This is the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in the galaxy. A fortress for the super-rich. If you can afford your own star system, this is where you keep it. No one sets foot on the planet without protocols. All movement is monitored, all air consumption regulated. DNA is authenticated at every stage. Intruders will be incinerated." It switched to a woman breathing on a tube, only for the light to turn red and the woman to be burned alive. It changed to a couple putting a painting in a drawer. "Each vault, buried deep in the earth, is accessed by a drop-slot at the planet's surface. It's atomically sealed, an unbreakable lock. The atoms have all been scrambled. Your presence on this planet is unauthorized. A team will have been dispatched to terminate you."

At that moment, someone started to pound on a door they hadn't realized before. "This is bank security. Open up!"

"Your survival depends on following my instructions."

"Open up and you shall be humanely disposed of!"

"There's another exit," Saibra called, pointing at it.

"All the information you need is in this case."

Psi pulled another chip from his head, plugging it into the case without a word. "What are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"Downloading."

The Doctor nodded. "Ah. Augmented. Nice."

"The Bank of Karabraxos is impregnable." The Doctor grabbed a small device from the case, all of them standing as they prepared to run. "The Bank of Karabraxos has never been breached. You will rob the Bank of Karabraxos."

The video ended as glass shattered from behind them.

|C-S|

They kept running until the Doctor stumbled, taking deep breaths. It forced them all to stop but also gave them a chance to establish exactly who these two strangers were. "Okay, okay, okay," the Doctor said. "Augmented human. Computer augmented, yes? Mainframe in your head?"

Psi shrugged. "I'm a gamer." He frowned. "Sorry, you put you in charge?"

Adelaide shook her head. "Is that a natural human response?" She nodded at Psi's neck. "Prison code on your neck."

Psi narrowed his eyes at that. "I'm a hacker slash bank robber."

"Good. This is a good day to be a bank robber." He turned to Saibra. "Mutant human. What kind of mutant?"

"Like he says, why are you in charge now?"

"I'm in charge of plans, she's" he pointed at Adelaide "is in charge of theories. Special power?"

Saibra sighed, turning to Clara, and took her hand. A wave went over her, transforming Saibra into an exact copy of Clara until she let go of her hand. "I touch living cells, I can replicate the owner."

Clara's eyes widened. "Your face, when we first saw you..."

"I touched the worm."

"You can replicate their clothes too?"

"I wear a hologram shell."

The Doctor held up the thing he'd taken from the case. "Human cells."

Adelaide nodded. "Likely DNA from a customer. A disguise to get us inside."

Clara looked between the Time Lords. "We're actually going to do it? Rob a bank?"

"I don't think we really have a choice. We've already agreed to." He held the device out to Saibra, who touched it without a word.

|C-S|

It appeared that Adelaide had been right, as Saibra had been transformed into an older man. Now she led the way through the halls of the bank towards the main hall. The Doctor stepped up closer to Saibra. "How long can you maintain the image for?"

"For as long as I like."

Adelaide nodded. "Very intriguing." Saibra glanced at her. "Scientist. Can't help the curiosity, sorry. Normally I can hide it a bit better."

They stepped into the main hall, surrounded by even more people. "Question one," the Doctor said. "Robbing banks is easy if you've got a TARDIS. So why are we not using it?"

"Question two," Clara said. "Where is the TARDIS?"

He nodded. "Okay, that probably should be question one."

They froze when an alarm sounded, though thankfully everyone else in the room did the same thing. All of the exits were instantly blocked. "Banking floor locking down."

"They know we're here," Saibra hissed.

"Banking floor locking down."

One of the doors opened to reveal a woman who reminded Adelaide a bit of her faint and fuzzy memories of Miss Foster from Adipose strode out. A large alien, wearing a straightjacket, was led out after her, surrounded by a large set of armored guard.

"What is that?" Saibra asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, glancing at Adelaide.

"I hate not knowing," was all she could say, frowning.

The woman strode up to a male customer. "Excuse me, sir. I regret to say that your guilt has been detected."

"What?" the man tried to laugh. "That...that's totally ridiculous."

The woman didn't laugh. "Is it, sir? Well then, we will certainly double-check. The Teller will now scan your thoughts for any criminal intent. Good luck, sir." She stepped to the side to allow for the alien to be brought forward, the man putting down his briefcase.

"Interesting," the Doctor mumbled.

"What is?" Psi asked.

"The lasted thing in sniffer dogs. Telepathic. It hunts guilt."

The Teller emitted an extremely high pitched sound, making waves in the air as it projected forward onto the man, who was currently gripping his head in pain.

"What about our guilt?" Clara asked.

"Currently being drowned out."

"What's he doing?" the man had closed his eyes.

"If he has a plan, he's trying not to think of it."

"Ever tried not thinking about something?"

"No."

Saibra let out a breath. "You may have to."

The Teller roared and the woman stepped back into place. "Ah, criminal intent detected. How naughty. What was your plan? Counterfeit currency in your briefcase, perhaps?"

"No, not at all!" the man cried, clearly still in great pain. "For God's sake."

"It doesn't really matter," the woman continued, "we'll establish the details later. The Teller is never wrong when it comes to guilt. Your account will now be deleted, and obviously your mind." She smirked at the Teller. "Suppertime."

The Teller moved forward, two eye stalks moving so that they faced each other and formed a pulse of energy that it fired at the man's head. Psi flinched as the man's started to scream.

"It's wiping his mind," the Doctor breathed. "Turning his brain into soup."

"Your next of kin will be informed," the woman continued, speaking as though a man wasn't screaming right in front of her, "and incarcerated, as further inducement to honest financial transactions."

Clara made to move. "We've got to help him."

But Adelaide shook her head. "He's already gone."

"He's in agony, look at him."

"Those aren't tears, Clara," Adelaide said, not needing to say anything else for Clara to understand.

The man finally stopped screaming as the Teller separated its eye stalks, but that was only because the front of his skull was caved in. One of the guards caught him as he fell. "Account closed," the woman said. "Take him away. He's ready for his close-up." She turned to face the gathered crowd, a few looking quite ill, and addressed them with a microphone. "Apologies for the disturbance. Everyone have a lovely day."

|C-S|

They managed to find an open deposit booth shortly after. "Deposit booth locking," the computer said once they'd all stepped inside. "Please exhale. Your valuables will be transported up from the vault."

Saibra stepped up to the computer at the other end of the room and breathed into it, everyone tensing until the light turned green. Saibra rippled back to her original form as a case arrived.

The Doctor stepped up to the case as Psi frowned. "If he can break in here and plant this thing, then why does he need our help?"

"Depends what the thing is." The Doctor opened the case. "Okay, well, I'm no expert, but fuses, timer...I'm going to stick my neck out and say bomb." He turned to Psi. "Bank schematic. Now."

Psi stepped up to one of the four columns, inset with a monitor, and attached himself to it via a wire. After a few seconds, he gestured them all over.

"The floor below is all service corridors, the veins and arteries of the bank," the Doctor reasoned, stepping back to the middle of the room to test the floor. "He wants us to blow through the floor."

Saibra scoffed. "Well, we'll die if we do that."

"Not necessarily," Adelaide told her.

"What if we're blowing up the floor for someone else?" Clara asked. "What if we're not supposed to make it out alive?"

The Doctor sighed. "Oh, don't be so pessimistic. It'll affect team morale."

"What, and getting us blown up won't?"

He shrugged. "Well, only very, very briefly."

Psi shook his head, stepping back. "Er, no. No way. You can do what you like. I'm going to take my chances out there."

"Psi..."

He went for the doors. "No, no, no. These two, your mates, they're lunatics."

"What do you want, Psi, more than anything else?" the Doctor called. "Whatever it is, it's in this bank. You agreed to rob the most impregnable bank in history. You must have had a very good reason. We all must have. Picture the thing you want most in the universe, and decide how badly you want it. Well?"

Psi was quiet for a moment. "Still don't understand why you're in charge."

"Basically, it's the eyebrows." The Doctor bent over the case, messing with it for a moment before he placed it in the center of the floor and they all backed up, holding onto various bits of the wall. There was a brief flash when the power peaked and then they could hear bits of machinery. The bomb had very neatly made a hole in the floor. "Nice. Dimensional shift bomb. Sends the particles to a different plane." He grinned at them. "Come on then, Team Not Dead."

They all climbed down just as guards started hammering on the doors, having found them. The Doctor just used the bomb on the floor again, resealing it perfectly. "Well, so, what are we supposed to do now?" Saibra turned to the Time Lords. "What's the plan?"

"I don't know." The Doctor shrugged. "The Architect set all this up. It should make sense. My personal plan is that a thing will probably happen quite soon."

"Ah, so that's it. That's your plan?"

"Yep."

"A thing will happen?"

He nodded. "A thing. Probably."

Clara stepped to the side, nodding at something. "Hey, look."

Adelaide smiled at her. "Good job, Clara."

The Doctor grinned. "There you go. Thing time."

They all walked over to gather around the case. "How does he get the cases here?" Clara asked.

"He breaks into the bank prior to breaking into the bank."

"Well, how did he do that? And if he can do that, why does he need us?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not our problem."

"Well, what is our prob...prob...prob...prob...pr..." Psi jerked as his voice stuttered, shaking himself in order to stop.

"You okay?"

Psi nodded. "Drive glitch. It's fine."

"Guilt is our problem," the Doctor continued. "Guilt, in this bank, is fatal. The Teller can hear it. Ever since that first case was opened, we've been targets. The more we know about why we're here, the louder our guilt screams. That's why we wiped our memories. For our own safety. Now, once I open this," he put a hand on either side of the case, "I can't close it again."

"Would it be safer if only one of us learned it?"

The Doctor nodded at him. "I'm waiting for you to volunteer."

"Er, why me?"

"You can perform a manual delete," Adelaide said.

Psi sighed. "Okay." They all stepped away, letting Psi pull the case towards himself. He opened it carefully before frowning. "I don't know what it is. You may as well have a look." He turned the case so that they could see; seven short tubes with pins. "Well, what are they?"

"Not a clue." The Doctor didn't look at Adelaide.

"Hmm, interesting."

He glanced at Saibra. "What is?"

"You're lying."

"Why would he be lyi...lyi...lyi...lying?" Psi shook himself again. "Ugh. Sorry. Stress. Drains the batteries."

Adelaide nodded at a console close to them. "Interface."

"Do we have time for this?" Saibra asked.

"Well, why not? There's no immediate threat."

The Doctor was quickly proven wrong by the alarm that sounded. "Warning. Intruders detected!"

He groaned. "I should stop saying things like that."

"Intruders detected!"

The Doctor stepped to Adelaide, the two nodding at each other before turning to the three variants on human. "Clara, you stay with Psi. Saibra, let's go and investigate."

|C-S|

The Doctor was the one who ended up kicking open the grill and helping the two women out if the vents. "Aren't you going to ask me?" the Doctor asked Saibra as they started to walk.

"Why did you lie? Those hardware things, you know what they are."

"Exit strategy of sorts."

Adelaide looked to Saibra. "How did you know?"

"I've had a lot of faces. I find them easy to read."

He nodded. "Quite a gift."

"Gift?" Saibra scoffed.

"It got us in here."

"Mutant gene," Saibra corrected. "No one can touch me. If they do, I transform. Touch me and you'll be looking at yourself. I am alone."

The Doctor frowned. "Why?"

"Could you trust someone who looked back at you out of your own eyes?"

There was a moan and the group followed the sound, finding a row of cells. Psi and Clara ran up just as they reached a particular cell that held the man from before. "Oh my God," Clara gasped. "Why is he even still alive?"

"Someone is watching..." Adelaide said, nodding up at the red light of the security feed above them.

"However this goes," Psi mumbled, "whatever happens, don't let me end up like that."

An alarm sounded, though this time they were less surprised about it. "Intruders on the service level. Intruders on the service level."

The Doctor hurried over to another grill, sonicing it open. "Now this" he nodded at the 'No Entry' sign above it, "says place to hide."

They all hurried inside, Adelaide leading that time, and came out in a room that they certainly should have been nowhere near: the Teller's room. The Teller himself was inside a humid glass case, looking like he was hibernating.

"Where are we?" Saibra whispered, not daring to speak loudly with the Teller so close.

Adelaide stepped closer to the Teller and watched it react. "Nobody move or say a word. It's cocooned. Forced hibernation." She frowned. "The power may be dormant..."

There were boots and voices outside, serving as enough sound to wake the Teller. "Clara," the Doctor said carefully, moving closer to her. "It's locked on to you. It may still be asleep. Don't wake it."

"Okay. How do I not do that?"

"Block everything," Adelaide told her. "Think of a wall and don't let anything through." The Teller let out a low growl. "A wall, Clara. Just a wall."

The Teller roared. "This way," Psi called, guiding them all to another vent. Adelaide pulled Clara after her while Saibra guarded the vent they'd entered through. The Doctor managed to get it open, everyone but Saibra managing to get through immediately. He'd just turned to check that Saibra was coming when Saibra fell back with a scream. "Saibra!" Psi shouted, trying to see around the Doctor.

"She's still in there," Clara gasped. "How do we get her out?"

"It's scanning her brain," the Doctor said.

"Then what?"

"Soup."

Clara looked between the Time Lords. "Then help her!"

The Doctor stepped forward. "Saibra."

"What should I do?" it was actually slightly impressive that she was able to talk at all with the Teller rooting through her brain. "How can I get away?"

"It's rooting through your brain. It's tasting all the secrets stashed inside. Any moment now, it will finish its sweep and start feasting on what's left."

"And then I become one of those things we saw sitting in a cage?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Can you not get me out?"

Adelaide stepped slightly closer. "I'm not certain if it's possible once it's locked onto your thoughts." Even if she didn't know exactly what the creature was, she could make conclusions based on her knowledge of what she assumed were similar things. Once it had broken past the wall, once it had truly gotten inside...there was no turning back.

"Exit strategy. That means what I think it means, right?"

The Doctor handed Saibra one of the devices. "Atomic shredder."

"Painless?"

"And instant."

Saibra nodded. "When you meet the Architect, promise me something. Kill him."

"I hate him, but I can't make that promise."

Saibra managed a small smile. "A good man. I left it late to meet one of those." She pulled the pin from the device, vanishing into a flash of light that made the Teller roar.

 **A/N: It's a good thing that Adelaide is more about manners than the technicalities of law - so long as they're breaking into the bank for a good/polite reason, she's completely fine :)**


	10. Last Two

**Last Two**

They emerged into a large corridor with a vault door at the end. "Right, vault," the Doctor said, nodding as they stepped up to it. "That's clear. What's not clear is what we do now."

Clara glanced at the Time Lords. She was very used to the Doctor looked more emotional than Adelaide and now was no different. "Hey. You okay?"

"No, we're amnesiacs robbing a bank. Why would we be okay?"

"Because Saibra..."

"Saibra is dead, we are alive," Adelaide said, speaking simply. "Sometimes, it's necessary to prioritize."

"Oh," Psi scoffed, "is that why he calls himself the Doctor and you hang around with him? The professional detachment."

"For your information, I am a scientist in my own right." Adelaide didn't look at him. "Emotional detachment is a necessity of the profession."

The Doctor nodded. "When we're done here, by all means, you go and find yourself a shoulder to cry on. You'll probably need that. Till then, what you need is us." The Time Lords stepped forward without another word, moving to investigate the vault.

Clara watched them leave. "Underneath it all, they're not really like that."

Psi looked at her. "It's very obvious that you've been with the two of them for a while."

"Why?"

"Because you are really good at excuses."

"I've learned from the best." She nodded at Adelaide. "When she's not stressed, she tends to be the one who manages his rudeness."

"She's not rude herself?"

"Compared to him?"

"Another gift from the Architect!" the Doctor called, stepping out from the alcove near the vault. "Shall we unwrap it?" He bent down, opening it to reveal a card and a small device, which Psi plugged himself into.

The download seemed to hurt a bit, but once it was finished he stepped into the alcove while Clara studied the card. "Right, the system looks like it's time-delayed. There are twenty-four lock codes I need to break."

Clara glanced down the tunnel when there was a growl. "It's coming. We're trapped."

"Psi, how long?"

He shrugged. "As long as it takes."

Adelaide nodded. "It's locked on to one of our thought trails."

"We have to split up, minimize the brain signals." The Doctor and Adelaide nodded at each other before stepping back, preparing to run.

"What happened to your professional detachment?" Psi said, holding out a hand. The Doctor didn't speak as he handed him one of the atomic shredders.

Clara's eyes widened. "No. No!"

"In case it finds me. It's my choice."

"You don't use that, okay? Promise me."

Psi made no such promise. "Time to run." He knelt down to begin his work, and the Time Lords and Clara hurried out into the main part of the corridor.

"Separate," the Doctor ordered and they hurried off in opposite directions.

They could hear the Teller shuffling along the tunnels trying to find them. It was moving slowly, no doubt at least slightly confused, but they knew it would lock onto one of them.

The Time Lords just hoped it would be one of them first.

It wasn't.

Clara's scream made them all turn, even Psi, who ran from the computer.

"Clara!" the Doctor shouted from something, trying to find her.

"Come on!" Psi shouted suddenly, echoing down the halls. "Come and find me! Every thief and villain in one big cocktail. I am so guilty! Every famous burglar in history is hiding in this bank right now in one body. Come and feast! Clara? For what it's worth, and it might not be worth much, when your whole life flashes in front of you, you see people you love and people missing you. Well, I see no one." Psi screamed as he finished, the Teller roaring, and the trio of time travelers ran back to the vault just as the countdown ended.

"Three, two, one...failed. Vault unlocking failed."

Clara tried to move the wheel on the front of the door, but it didn't move. "It's not opening. Psi. He died for nothing."

The Doctor hurried over to the alcove, using his sonic. "Multiple locks. Last one still in place." He turned to a panel, opening it. "Atomic seal." He looked up at Adelaide. "Unbreakable, even for us."

She frowned. "The Architect would know that. He wouldn't bring us all this way for nothing."

"And get two people killed," Clara added.

"There must be some logic."

The human shook her head. "Some logic?"

"Something..." Adelaide closed her eyes, thinking, when there was suddenly thunder from outside. "A storm." Her eyes opened. "The storm's tripping the system."

"How would he know when a storm would hit?"

The Doctor's eyes widened, pointing at Adelaide and laughing. "Of course! Stupid, stupid Doctor. Of course, of course!"

"Of course, what?" Clara looked between them.

"Whoever the Architect is, they're in the future," Adelaide explained. "This is a time travel heist."

"We've been sent back in time to the exact moment of the storm, to be in exactly the right place when it hits," the Doctor moved to stand beside either of them before the vault door, "because that's the only time the bank is vulnerable."

"Vault unlocked," the computer announced and the door swung open.

The Doctor grinned. "The bank is now open."

"Vault unlocked."

He glanced at Clara. "Come on." They all stepped inside, finding a golden vault filled with safety deposit boxes. "It explains why we're not here in the TARDIS.

"Sorry, what?"

"The solar disruption would have made navigation impossible. The one time the bank is vulnerable is the one time we can't just land."

Clara looked down at the card from the case. "The code..." she stepped forward. "The code that was in the last case. Look. 'Tech'."

"Technology 251," the Doctor nodded. "Find it."

They split up to search, Clara ending up being the one to announce "Tech!"

Once they found 251, they thankfully didn't need any sort of key to open it. Inside was what appeared to be a syringe. "That's a neophyte circuit," Adelaide said. "Only ever seen it in a textbook."

"I've only ever seen one once before," the Doctor nodded. "It can reboot any system, replace any lost data."

"Psi," Clara nodded. "That's what he came for, his reward."

"So what did Saibra come for?"

They searched for ORG 339, the next series, and found a small bottle inside. "Gene suppressant," Adelaide said.

"She wanted to be normal."

The Doctor shrugged. "Everyone has a weakness. So the big question is this. What did we come for?" he looked to Adelaide, but thankfully the Time Lady was saved from answering by Clara reading off the next series of letters.

She did not want to admit what weakness the Architect could have used to entice her to rob a bank.

"PV," Clara read.

"Private vault." The Doctor looked away from Adelaide. "Karabraxos's own fortune?" He stepped around a corner only to come face to face with the Teller.

|C-S|

Two guards brought the trio to the very nice office, one Adelaide was honestly envious of, of the ginger woman from before. The Teller stood to the side, a fact the three of them were trying hard to ignore.

"Intruders are most welcome," the woman smiled at them. "They remind us that the bank is impregnable. It's good for morale to have a few of you scattered about the place, preferably on view." She gestured to the monitors, which showed a collection of the Teller's victims. "Are you ready for your close-up? If you're thinking of ways to escape, the Teller will know before you've even made a move. You'll never be bothered by all that thinking again."

The Doctor eyed the Teller. "Useful species."

"Last of its kind, and we've signed an exclusive deal."

The Doctor shrugged. "Must be noisy inside its head. Painful to listen to so much chatter, so many secrets. Must drive it wild. How can you force it to obey?"

"Oh," the woman smirked, "everything has a price tag, I think you'll find." She looked up as there was thunder again. "The storm's getting worse. The customers are leaving. Director Karabraxos will be concerned. Our jobs will be on the line."

"You're scared."

The woman nodded. "Oh, I'm terrified. I have the disadvantage of knowing Karabraxos personally."

Adelaide allowed herself a small frown as she considered the woman. "If you don't like your boss, why stay?"

She shrugged. "My face fits." She stood from her desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must take the Teller to its hibernation. You two, dispose of our guests." She and the Teller left together.

The guards turned to the three of them, forcing them back against the wall. "Don't do this," the Doctor tried. "I'm having a very bad day, and I do not want to be pushed around."

"You're wrong," the un-helmeted guard said.

"Wrong?"

"It's not that bad a day. And you're both being very slow."

The Doctor looked down as the guards started to undo their restraints. "Why are you undoing our handcuffs?" the un-helmeted guard transformed with a shiver into Saibra. "Saibra?"

"It looked like death," the other, Psi, pulled off his helmet. "It was actually a teleporter."

The moment she could, Clara rushed forward to hug Psi. "Oh my God."

"You are such a bad influence," Adelaide mumbled.

"Oh, don't try and pretend that you would have noticed without me," the Doctor scoffed.

Adelaide just raised her eyebrows, with made the other three laugh. "Good, eh?" Psi nodded. "You think we're dead, so the Teller thinks we're dead, and we play the creature at his own mind games."

"There's a ship in orbit then?"

Psi nodded. "Takes you right there. Oh, and there's this big blue box. Is that yours?"

The Doctor grinned. "Well, this is good, I suppose. You'll be able to resume the mission."

"Gene suppressant," Adelaide gave Saibra the small bottle. "Antidote for your condition."

"Memory giver," the Doctor did the same for Psi. "All your yesterdays." Both took it, looking down in slight wonder. "There you go. Job done, paid in full. Clever old Architect."

"Very clever," Saibra nodded. "Still hate him though."

"Me too," Adelaide said. "Clever is my job."

The Doctor smiled. "How rude of him."

"How were you paid?"

The Doctor shrugged. "We don't know. There's something in the private vault."

|C-S|

It was much quicker to reach the lower levels the second time, as Psi was more certain of the organization of the bank. "What's that?" the Doctor nodded at a pipe near the private vault that he hadn't noticed the first time around.

"Supply line. It's the only oxygen down to the private vault. There's another one for water, for basic life support."

Clara frowned. "What, for a private vault?"

"Someone likes to hang out with their wealth."

The Doctor opened a grate to the side, allowing them access to the private vault. It was far more ornate inside than one might have expected for a vault, filled with various treasures that the Time Lords both recognized and didn't.

"Director Karabraxos?" the Doctor said, walking up to a desk and the chair behind it, which was facing away from them. "Excuse us, but we've come to rob you. So if you want to put your hands above your head, or..."

The chair spun, revealing that the inhabitant was the ginger woman from before, though she was dressed differently. Her hands were up in a clearly mocking way. "Or?" She smirked. "You didn't bring any weapons. That's a bit of an oversight." She pressed a button on her desk. "Security, Karabraxos here."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "You're Karabraxos?"

She held up a finger. "One moment."

A monitor turned on, revealing the actual woman from before. "Director Karabraxos, is there a problem?"

"Intruders in the private vault. Send me the Teller. I want to find out how they got in, and then I want to wipe their memories."

"You have clones," Adelaide nodded.

Karabraxos sighed. "It's the only way to control my own security. I have a clone in every facility." She glanced at the screen again. "Get on it right away."

"Yes, of course."

"And then hand in your credentials. You're fired, with immediate effect."

"But please, I've been in your service..."

"Ever since the last one let me down and I was forced to kill it," Karabraxos waved a hand. "I can't quite believe that you're putting me through this again." The monitor cut off and Karabraxos sat back, sighing. "My clone. And yet she doesn't even protest. Pale imitation, really." She chuckled. "I should sue."

Clara gasped. "You're killing her? You just said..."

"Fired?" Karabraxos laughed. "I put all of the used clones into the incinerator. Can't have too many of moi scattered around."

"Sorry," Psi raised his eyebrows, "you don't get on with your own clone?"

"She hates her own clones," the Doctor corrected. "She burns her own clones. Frankly, you're a career break for the right therapist." His eyes widened. "Shut up. Everybody, just, just...shut up!"

Karabraxos laughed. "And what is this display now, as amusing as you are?"

"Shut up! Just shut up, shut up, shut up, shutetty up up up!" he spun to Saibra. "What...what did you say? What did you say? What did you say about your own eyes? De-shut up. Say it again."

Saibra glanced at Adelaide. "How can you trust someone if they look back at you out of your own eyes?"

"I know one thing about the Architect. What is it that I know about the Architect? I know one thing. Something that I've known from the very start."

"You hate him?" Adelaide offered.

He pointed at her. "I hate him! He's overbearing, he's manipulative, he likes to think that he's very clever. I hate him!" He spun, hitting a nearby gong. "I hate the Architect!"

"What in the name of sanity is going on in this room now?" Karabraxos asked.

"We're getting sanity judgment from the self-burner," the Doctor laughed.

Adelaide stepped forward, looking far more contained than the Doctor. "Do you mind if I borrow a bit of paper?" She grabbed one instead of waiting.

"And what are you doing now?"

"I'm giving you our telephone number. Our special one."

"Why?"

Adelaide folded it, writing a message on the outside, before passing it to Karabraxos. "I believe you shall have a reason to call us in the future."

The whole building actually shook that time when there was thunder, the lights flickering. "Oh, that was a big one, wasn't it?" the Doctor said, him and Adelaide moving to stand together for a moment. "I think that your bank is about to close for good, Karabraxos. If I was you, I'd get going. Don't mind us," he waved a hand, "we'll just stay here and burn." Karabraxos didn't look like she liked the idea, but once more alarms started to go off she hurried over to a small bag and started to pack. "Hard to know what to take," the Doctor called. "The greatest treasures of the universe in just one suitcase."

The building shook again and Clara stepped up to the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide, what's the plan? Is there a plan?"

"We can use the shredders and get us back to the ship," Saibra said.

"They're not shredders, they're teleports, and that's not the most interesting thing about them."

"So what is?"

"There were seven," Adelaide said, turning to look at Karabraxos again as the woman, with a vase under an arm, hurried to the doors. "Remember, feel free to give us a call."

"Doors opening."

Karabraxos shook her head. "You'll be dead."

"Yeah, you'll be old," the Doctor nodded. "We'll get on famously." His and Adelaide's hands drifted towards each other. "You'll be old and full of regret for the things that you can't change." He made a phone gesture as the doors shut.

Psi turned to the Time Lords. "What the hell is going on?"

"Are you remembering?" Clara tried.

"No, not a thing. But we're understanding."

"What? What is it? What are you understanding?"

"We're not sure yet. We need our memory back. And I think there's only one way to do that."

"Which would be?"

"Soup." The lift opened and the Teller entered. "Hello, big man." The Doctor stepped forward, away from Adelaide. "Peckish?"

Adelaide had to dig her nails into her palms to stop herself from doing anything. She and the Doctor hadn't discussed what they were going to do, what he was going to do, but she knew that, at the moment, the only way to get past the mental block was to use the Teller's ability. That didn't mean she was happy about it – especially because she wanted to be the one who knew what had happened – but she knew it had to happen.

The Teller trapped the Doctor, forcing him to his knees from the pain. Clara surged forward, but Adelaide grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. "He needs to do this."

"It will kill him!"

"Time Lords are naturally psychic creatures, we know how to deal with mind-reading aliens," Adelaide said, though she was fairly certain her voice was revealing a bit more of her nervousness than she normally would have liked.

"That's it, that's it," the Doctor said, his face screwed up from the pain. "There are so many memories in here. Feast on them. Tuck in. Big scarf, bow tie, bit embarrassing, Adelaide didn't really like it. What do you think of the new look? I was hoping for minimalism, but I think I came up with magician and Adelaide has yet to complain, so that's lovely. In the last few days, there's been a block. Can you see the block? Tell me why we're here. Show me why we're here. Show me!"

He gasped, eyes widening as he remembered.

It had been Karabraxos. An old Karabraxos, a dying Karabraxos, that Adelaide had spoken to on the phone.

|C-S|

"We need to take a detour," Adelaide said, replacing the phone and looking at the Doctor. "We've been given a job."

"A job?"

She opened the TARDIS door, leading the way inside. "We need to rob a bank."

"What?" Clara gasped.

Adelaide quickly typed on the monitor, explaining exactly what Karabraxos had said to the other two.

There was no question about what they would do after that.

Adelaide searched for people to help them and the Doctor made the plan as she worked. They decided on two other humans, a mutant human and an augmented one, before the Doctor went out to collect the DNA of the man whose identity they'd be using.

Then off to collect the two humans and to explain exactly what they would be getting themselves into.

It wasn't that hard for them to agree on it being the Doctor who would adopt the role of the 'Architect', the mysterious figure who would give them their mission. He was far more theatrical than her and the one who had actually made the plan they were going with.

Though it had been her thought process that had helped them predict exactly what the two of them would decide to do once told to rob a bank with their memories wiped.

|C-S|

The Doctor gasped as the Teller released him, letting him fall back. "Did you see why we came?" he asked it, also explaining to Adelaide. "Why we're here? We had to delete our own memories, otherwise you'd have known, and then she'd have known, because you were mentally linked. But she's gone now. They've all gone. They have no power over you now. You can do exactly what you want to do now. Exactly what you've always wanted to do."

The Teller stepped up to a large safe in the back of the room, unlocking it. "It knows the combination," Psi gasped.

"It was liked to Karabraxos," Adelaide nodded, the Doctor pointing at her.

"What exactly are we doing here?" Clara asked as the Doctor stood. "That thing killed people."

"Well so might you, to protect everything you loved." The safe swung open, revealing a second of the Teller's species that cried out when it saw the Teller before it. "There she is!" the Doctor cheered. "Not the last of its species. The last two." He took Adelaide's hand as Psi rushed forward to unchain the other alien. "A miracle."

"I thought I was the only miracle you've ever seen," Adelaide said, smiling.

The Doctor just kissed her hand for that, smiling as well.

"Exit strategy," Saibra called, nodding. "We've got seven shredders."

"Exactly. This wasn't a bank heist. It never was. It was a rescue mission for a whole species. Flesh and blood, the last currency." The lights flickered and the Doctor stepped forward, holding out a shredder to the Teller. "Time to go home. What do you think of that, big man?"

The Teller roared.

|C-S|

The Time Lords managed to find the quietest and most isolated planet they could for the two aliens. "So much mental traffic in the universe," the Doctor said, watching them walk away together. "Solitude is the only peace." He squeezed Adelaide's hand, beyond thankful that the Time Lady was there. That she was with him.

That he was not alone and neither was she.

That they'd never be alone again.

|C-S|

"Gioffree Borgia, mucho scary hombre," the Doctor was saying, using his chopsticks to accent his story, "says to me, 'what do you think of our Leaning Tower of Pisa?' I say," he leaned sideways, "'it looks okay to me.'"

The whole TARDIS burst into laughter, the members of the bank heist team scattered around the console with Chinese food. Adelaide and the Doctor had been attempting to outdo each other with the best story about their adventures before they'd met, though the Doctor was almost automatically the victor due to his far better storytelling ability. That didn't stop Adelaide from trying, especially with Clara helping when she recognized a story that Adelaide had told her before.

That had made the Doctor pout about the fact the girls were teaming up on him, which just made Psi and Saibra laugh even harder.

In the end, it was declared a tie and they all re-gathered to say goodbye. "If you ever need help with another bank heist," Psi offered, shaking the Doctor's hand and then Adelaide's before turning to give Clara a hug.

"Yeah," Clara laughed, "it's not really their area."

"How do you know I don't rob banks?" Adelaide said with a mock frown.

"Stealing is impolite?" Psi offered, making Adelaide laugh and the Doctor give him a phone gesture. He stepped out of the TARDIS and the Time Lords hurried to pilot Saibra home.

Once they'd landed, Saibra gave the Doctor a hug. "See? I don't have your face now."

Adelaide sighed. "He does miss that."

Saibra shook her head. "Oh, shut up." She gave the woman a quick hug before leaving the TARDIS, waving to Clara as she left.

Now, all they had to do was get Clara back home in time for her date. They made quick work of it that time. "7:12," the Doctor read out, "local time, as promised. Go and enjoy yourself. Don't do anything Adelaide wouldn't do."

Clara raised her eyebrows, walking back towards the door. "It's a date." She paused. "You know, I've just realized...I'm going out for another meal now."

The Doctor waved a hand. "Don't worry. Calories consumed on the TARDIS have no lasting effect."

Clara's eyes widened. "What? Are you kidding?"

"Of course I'm kidding. It's a time machine, not a miracle worker." The Doctor waved towards the door. "Bye, bye."

"See you. Don't rob any banks."

He grinned. "Don't rob any banks what?"

"Without me."

Adelaide nodded at her. "Of course not, assistant."

Clara gave a small bow and left the TARDIS.

The Doctor leaned against the console. "Robbing a bank," he said out loud. "Robbing a whole bank. Beat that for a date." He looked to where Adelaide was standing, across the console from him, and grinned.

He loved it when she smiled.

 **A/N: A happy conclusion for the Time Lords this time :)**


	11. The Biologist

**The Biologist**

Sometimes, Adelaide really regretted the fact the Doctor tended to take the lead on adventures.

"There's no way out of this," Clara shook her head. The three were chained to rather ornately carved pillars underneath a very strong pair of suns thanks to the Doctor's uncanny ability to get into trouble wherever he went. "We're going to die here."

"Pass me the vibro-cutters."

"They're in my pocket."

"Come on then, pass them to me."

Adelaide sighed, leaning her head back. "Clara has two jackets, Doctor."

"Why has she got two jackets? Is one of them faulty?"

"Look, I don't have the vibro-cutters. If I had the vibro-cutters, I wouldn't be able to pass you the vibro-cutters!" Clara shook her chained hands to prove her point. "We're going to starve to death out here.

"Of course we don't starve," the Doctor scoffed. "The sand piranhas will get us long before that."

Clara and Adelaide exchanged rather exasperated looks at that.

|C-S|

When Clara entered the TARDIS, she stopped almost immediately once she spotted the Time Lords. They were standing, the Doctor back against the console and Adelaide against him, looking like they were...hugging? Their foreheads were pressed together, so it didn't really seem like a traditional hug that Clara would have expected, but it was closer than she'd seen them get in some time.

The TARDIS had landed in her living room a few minutes ago, but Clara had taken a few moments to change her shoes into something better fitted for adventuring so the Time Lords had potentially had longer alone than they'd expected.

She didn't get to pause long because the Time Lords stepped apart, Adelaide moving to the side and the Doctor turning to address her. "Clara!"

Clara raised her eyebrows. "So...where we off to?"

The Doctor looked her over. "Clara, you...you look lovely today. Have you had a wash?"

She frowned at him. "What has Adelaide done to you? Why are you being nice?"

"He's made me slower, I've made him politer," Adelaide said, though her tone of voice made it clear that she was mocking the Doctor. "There's not going to be a trip today, Clara."

The Doctor nodded. "We've got to do a thing. It might take a while."

"What thing?"

He turned away the scanner close to Clara, not letting her see what it said. "Just a thing."

"You're being mysterious, and do you know what that means?"

He grinned. "I'm a man of mystery and Adelaide loves mysteries?"

"It means that you are a very clever woman" she looked at Adelaide "and a very foolish man" to the Doctor "making the mistake, common to very clever and very foolish people, of assuming that everybody else is stupid. Where are you going?" she grabbed the screen back but Adelaide managed to switch it to a view of the galaxy first.

"Undercover," the Doctor said. "Deep cover."

"Can you do deep cover?"

"What do you mean?"

Clara looked him up and down. "Have you seen you? I mean, Adelaide probably could, but you?"

The Doctor looked slightly offended. "Of course I can do deep cover."

Clara laughed. "Where, the Magic Circle?"

The Doctor snapped, opening the TARDIS door. "We'll see you when we see you."

Clara snapped, closing them. "When's that?"

Adelaide's snap that time. "When we see you."

"Hmm." Clara frowned at them. "Hmm...I'll be sure to have a wash."

"Excellent. I was meaning to bring it up."

It was only once Clara left the TARDIS that Adelaide switched the screen back to what it had been before. They'd just wanted to come to check on Clara, to ensure she was still safe, before they did what they needed to do.

There was something in London.

Specifically, near Coal Hill.

|C-S|

The Doctor couldn't help but keep looking at Adelaide as they hurried through the corridors of Coal Hill to the staff room. She'd adopted the appearance of a teacher – specifically, a biology teacher – and it was so odd to see how both uncomfortable and natural she looked in it. Natural because this was what she was, she was a scientist, a problem-solver, a discoverer.

But uncomfortable because she wasn't really a teacher, not anymore.

He, on the other hand, felt quite nice in his position as a janitor – or caretaker, as he liked to think of it. He'd almost thought to look into carrying a broom all the time but then Adelaide had told him that would mean he'd have to clean up his own messes.

The idea hadn't seemed so appealing then.

"...just one more thing," the headmaster was saying as they approached, having ended up a bit late due to their slight disagreement on how to interpret the instructions they'd been given, as it had contradicted the map the TARDIS had provided them. "Katheryn's on vacation and Atif's off sick, so we've got some newbies. I did ask them to come along..." The Doctor knocked. "Ah, here they are."

The door opened and the Time Lords weren't surprised to see Clara standing at the front of the group of teachers, looking quite shocked at the sight.

Especially given that the two of them were holding hands. In public.

"Hello," Adelaide nodded. "I'm Kathryn's substitute, Adelaide Attwater."

The Doctor waved. "And I'm the new caretaker. John Smith."

One of the male teachers nodded at them. "Welcome to Coal Hill, Ms. Attwater, Mr. Smith."

"Thanks. Yes, John Smith's the name. But, you know, here's a thing. Most people just call me the Doctor." He winked at Clara for that one. "So, if anybody needs me, just, you know, give me a shout. I'll be in the storeroom just getting the lie of the land or with my sweetheart here." He held up their hands, making it clear to the gathered teachers that he and Adelaide were a 'pair'.

They'd considered just showing up as friends, but had decided that it would be easier to explain why they'd need to be seeing a lot of each other if they let people think they were dating.

Which, in actuality, they were, in a way.

Just not in the traditional way humans would expect.

It was a new concept for Adelaide and she'd yet to decide how she actually felt about it.

The rest of the teachers nodded and the Time Lords stepped apart to let them leave, having an assembly to get to. Adelaide had been excused from attending in order to get the lay of the lab's organization. The Doctor gestured towards the door as they all passed. "Yes, nobody's taking any notice at all. Absolutely good news because it means we must be coming across just as absolutely boring humans like you." As Clara passed them, she clearly lagged in order to speak to them, but the Doctor just closed the door in her face.

"Rude."

"Deep cover."

Adelaide shook her head at him. "I'll let the halls clear a bit before I go."

Just as she said that the door opened again and Clara strode back in, arms crossed. "So, you recognized us, then," the Doctor said, putting away his map of the building – now amended to fit the actual layout of the building.

"You're wearing different coats," she said, gesturing at the two Time Lords.

"But you saw straight through that."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Deep cover in my school? Why? Where's Katheryn? Where's Atif? What have you done with them?"

When she took a step forward, the Doctor gestured her back with the broom. "Atif's fine. Hypnotized. He thinks he's got the flu."

"Also a flying car and three wives," Adelaide added. "But don't worry, he'll be fine. And Katheryn's actually on vacation right now, I just intercepted a request for a substitute."

"Is it aliens?" Clara's eyes widened. "Oh my God, is that why you're here? Are there aliens?"

"There's an assembly," Adelaide reminded her. "Don't want to be late."

"Go and worship something."

Clara stepped forward. "Are there aliens in this school?"

"Listen, it's lovely talking to you, but we've really got to get on. I'm a caretaker now. Look, I've got a brush." He held it up.

"Adelaide, is there an alien in this school?"

"Yes, two," Adelaide nodded.

"Now go." He gestured her out again. "The walls need sponging, there's a sinister puddle, and Adelaide has a lab to reorganize."

"I'm not going to reorganize it..."

Clara shook her head. "You can't do this. You two cannot pass yourselves off as real people among actual people. Even Adelaide's a bit too odd for that."

The Doctor shrugged. "I lived among otters once for a month." He paused. "Well, I sulked. Adelaide and I'd had a bit of a disagreement..."

"That had not been a 'bit of a disagreement'," she corrected. "And you were there for about two days."

"Human beings are not otters!" Clara cut in.

"Exactly." The Doctor nodded. "It'll be even easier."

Clara sighed. "Okay. One question. And you will answer this question, both of you. Are the kids safe?"

"No," the Doctor said simply. "Nobody is safe. But soon the answer will be yes, everybody is safe, if you let us get on."

"It'll be best if you pretend you don't know us," Adelaide said. "We will explain later, I promise."

The Doctor nodded at the door. "Go and sing with the otters."

The human tightened her jaw. "I hate you."

The Doctor looked to Adelaide for defense, but she provided him with none. "That's a perfectly normal reaction."

It served to get the smallest of smiles from Clara before she exited the room.

|C-S|

Clara sat at the front of her very bored English class as they read Pride and Prejudice. Part of her almost wished something strange would happen just so that she could have a break from the monotonous reading of teenagers who didn't really want to be there. "Though unheard by Lydia, was caught by Elizabeth, and as it assured her that Darcy was not..." one of the boys was reading.

At the back of the room, through the window, Clara saw someone she certainly did not want to see at a window.

The Doctor was on a ladder.

Clara stood, cutting off the boy who was reading. "You alright, Miss Oswald?"

"Yes, Kelvin, I'm fine. You carry on."

Kelvin nodded, looking down again. "Every feeling of displeasure against the former was so sharpened..."

Clara hurried down the line of students to the back of the room, pulling a chair over in order to be at the Doctor's height. "Can I help you, Mr. Smith?" she said, speaking as quietly as she could as the whole class turned to look at her.

"Wrong," the Doctor said.

"I'm sorry?"

"On the board. Wrong. Wrong."

Clara looked back at her writing on the board before turning back. "Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't do this. You are the caretaker, this is not what you do."

He shrugged. "Just taking care."

"Not your area!"

"Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1796."

Clara cleared her throat and turned to address the class, who was still staring at the pair of them. "This is Mr. Smith, the temporary caretaker, and he's a bit confused."

"Not in 1797," the Doctor continued, not overly bothered by Clara's complaints, "because she didn't have the time. She was so busy doing all..."

"Oh, what?" Clara turned back to face the Doctor. "I suppose she was your bezzie mate, was she? And you and Adelaide and she went on holidays together and then you got kidnapped by Boggons from space and then you all formed a band and met Buddy Holly."

The Doctor blinked. "I don't even think Adelaide's met Jane Austen. I should ask her..." Clara raised her eyebrows. "I read the book. There's a bio at the back."

The children giggled at that, making Clara close her eyes for a moment and take a deep breath. "Get down."

The Doctor smirked. "Boggons?"

"Go." The school bell rang as the Doctor descended. "Right, that's it," Clara jumped down from the chair. "Well done, Kelvin. Get going. See you all in a couple of days. Thanks very much."

"Miss," Kelvin called as she reached the door, "what about our homework?"

"Who asks for homework?" she smiled. "Amateur."

|C-S|

As it turned out, Katheryn had made such a detailed lesson plan that Adelaide wasn't expected to do anything except sit at the front of the class and stop kids from spending too much time on their phones; Katheryn hadn't wanted to give a potentially unknowing substitute any lab work, so the students were just working on a series of worksheets.

It appeared that, despite her being a substitute and thus easy to prank or generally mess with, Adelaide exuded so much sternness that no one dared cross her. It had been something she'd been known for on Gallifrey too.

There was one particularly enthusiastic student, the kind Adelaide had always liked best, Tanya Adeola, who'd finished so quickly that Adelaide had ended up giving her interesting problems to keep her entertained for the rest of the lesson.

Once the bell rang, Adelaide hurried out to find the Doctor and ensure he hadn't gotten himself into any sticky situations.

She managed to find him in the courtyard working on a cabinet and chatting with two male teachers. Clara entered the courtyard from the other side, though students kept running up to tell her things.

"Of course, Danny Pink here is your man, Mr. Smith," one of the teachers was saying to the Doctor, gesturing towards the other. "Five years' military experience, sergeant, here and Afghan, so electrics, boilers, if you need a hand, give him a shout."

The man, Danny, shrugged. "I...I've helped Atif with a couple of things."

"I'll thank you for the offer for John since he doesn't tend to say thank you," Adelaide said, making all the men turn. Clara appeared on the other side, holding a watering can and looking very much like she was trying to spy without getting caught. "I don't believe we've met. Your names are?"

"Adrian Davies," the first man said, grinning. Now that Adelaide could see him properly, she was honestly a bit shocked to see how much he resembled the Doctor's previous incarnation, right down to the bow tie. "English."

Danny gave a little wave. "Danny Pink, maths." Adelaide almost blinked at his face as well. It was almost remarkable, how much he looked like the man they'd found at the end of the universe.

"Wonderful to meet you both." She looked down at the Doctor. "How are you getting on?"

"Peachy, fully qualified, no issues here," he said...just as something sparked. He turned to Danny. "You best get back to your PE class."

Danny shook his head. "I teach maths, I just said..."

The Doctor frowned. "Do you? What, in emergencies?"

"No, he's a maths teacher," Adelaide told him.

"Yeah," Adrian nodded, "he's a maths teacher." Something broke nearby and Adrian spun. "Mohammed, put that down!" he ran off.

"How does that work?" the Doctor continued. "What if the kids have questions?"

Danny frowned. "About what?"

"Maths."

"I answer them. I'm a maths teacher."

"But he said you were a soldier."

"Yeah. I was a soldier, now I'm a maths teacher."

The Doctor frowned. "But what about all the PE?"

"He doesn't teach PE," Adelaide said.

"Sorry," he shook his head, "that seems very unlikely."

Clara, meeting eyes with Adelaide, stepped forward. "Er, excuse me. Mr. Pink, I think class 9M4 are waiting."

The Doctor waved Danny away. "Yes, you better run along, Sergeant. That ball isn't going to kick itself, is it?"

Danny started to back away. "I...I'm not a PE teacher, I'm a maths teacher."

"Nope, sorry. No, I can't retain that. I've tried. It's just not going in."

Adelaide sighed. "I'm sorry, Danny. He can be extremely blunt and doesn't tend to think before he speaks."

Danny just gave the Doctor a look before hurrying off, letting Clara take his place. "So, Pink? The name remind you of anything?"

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded. "The color."

"Colonel Orson Pink," Adelaide told him.

Clara nodded. "The guy we met at the end of the universe."

"Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah. Same name, doesn't look anything like him though."

Adelaide and Clara exchanged another look. "Looks very like him."

"Does he?" the Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Who remembers a PE teacher?"

"Someone with an ounce of manners?" Adelaide offered.

"You're polite for me," the Doctor waved, putting a device in the cabinet before locking it up. "I don't need to be polite if you're here."

Adelaide sighed.

Clara shook her head. "Oh, never mind." She glanced at the cabinet. "What are you doing? What...what's in there?"

"So, is he here then?" the Doctor said, straightening and taking Adelaide's hand for a second.

"Is who here?"

"The one that you keep going on serious dates with."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "If he is, are you going to start talking like a normal human being without Adelaide being there to stop you?"

"I promise I won't. I'm being nice."

"Doctor..." Adelaide said.

"Clara!" Adrian called, making Clara turn away from the Time Lords. "Got this period free, yes?"

"No," she answered quickly, before sighing. "Yes."

"Great. Shakespeare!"

"Sorry, what, Adrian?"

The Doctor nodded, his expression hardening. "Oh, I see."

"What?" Adelaide asked the Doctor, suitably annoyed about the fact the Doctor seemed to have noticed something Adelaide hadn't.

"Nothing." The Doctor waved her off. "Nothing at all."

"Excuse me," Adrian smiled at both of them. "We have to talk about The Tempest." He pulled Clara off.

The Doctor leaned a bit closer to Adelaide. "That's the boyfriend."

"Because he looks like your last regeneration?" he nodded. "What about any of your previous interactions with Clara gave you the impression that she'd desire to have a relationship with your human lookalike?" he opened his mouth and closed it again. "Exactly. Now, get back to work." Adelaide walked away, leaving the Doctor to smile after her.

|C-S|

Somehow the Doctor and Adelaide managed to walk up to the caretaker's storeroom at the exact same moment. She swore that he'd timed it thus, waiting until she ended her class early before doing anything, but he swore it was just a coincidence.

She gave him a look that dared him to claim that the stars were singing at that moment and thankfully the Doctor didn't feel like challenging her that day. He just held the door open for her before following her in. "And one for luck," he called, dropping the last of the devices in a basket outside, closing the door behind him. Adelaide had already reached the TARDIS where they'd parked it in the back of the storeroom, unlocking it. "Now we're in business. Let's see the lie of the land."

Adelaide held the door open for him. "Let's see what's going on." The Doctor took her hand, kissing it, before pulling her into the TARDIS after him.

A few seconds later, after they'd only managed to get a few steps inside, they heard someone calling from outside. "Hello?" it sounded like one of the students. "Oi! What are you doing? Are you in there? There's been a spillage in Geography. I need some paper towels."

The Doctor, groaning, stepped out of the TARDIS. Adelaide followed him, vaguely recognizing the girl. "Can't you read?" he pointed at a sign he'd put up in some attempt to dissuade humans from entering.

The girl crossed her arms. "Course I can read. Read what?"

"The door." The Doctor crossed his arms too. "It says 'keep out'."

"No, it says 'go away humans'."

The Doctor turned the sign towards himself, frowning at it. "Oh, so it does." Never lose your temper in the middle of a door sign."

"What were you doing in there?" the girl tried to look into the TARDIS, which Adelaide was currently leaning against. "What's that box?"

"The caretaker's box," the Doctor explained. "Every caretaker has their own box."

"It says Police."

The Doctor looked to Adelaide, expecting her to help him, but she just raised her eyebrows. "Exactly. There's a policeman in there, in case of emergencies and children." He grabbed a nearby pack of paper towels, shoving it towards the girl. "Towels, there, go."

"What was that green glow?" the girl asked, clearly not prepared to leave. "There was a green glow coming from in there." She nodded at the TARDIS. "What was it?"

"Of course there was." He grinned. "What's a policeman without a death ray?"

The school bell rang, making Adelaide very thankful she had the next period free. "There's the bell. Don't want to be late."

"Haven't you got shoplifting to go to?"

The girl didn't appear put off. "I'm going to tell the Headmaster."

"Oh, yes, fine," the Doctor waved. "Well, cut along, you're running out of time."

She frowned. "For what?"

He shrugged. "Everything. Human beings have incredibly short lifespans." Adelaide shook her head. "Frankly, you should all be in a permanent state of panic. Tick tock, tick tock."

The girl shook her head. "You're weird."

"Yes, I am. But she's nice." He pointed at Adelaide. "What about you?"

"I'm a disruptive influence."

The Doctor grinned. "Good to meet you."

"And you."

The two shook hands. "Now get lost."

The girl waved goodbye to Adelaide as she moved back. "Okay." She'd just reached the door when Clara entered. "Hello, miss. Love to the Squaddie."

"Sorry, what did you say?" but the girl had already run off. "What was she doing in here?"

"Paper towels," Adelaide called.

"Now, I imagine you have many questions. Fire away. I won't answer any of them, and neither will Adelaide."

"What were they like?"

The two Time Lords frowned at each other. "What were who like?"

"The others before me. Did they let you get away with this kind of thing?" The Doctor looked away and Adelaide didn't say anything. "This school is in danger."

"Well, it's lucky we're here, then."

"From you." As they spoke, the whole group moved into the TARDIS, the Time Lords moving to stand around the console.

He frowned. "Us?"

Clara nodded. "You wouldn't be here if there wasn't an alien threat nearby. Your strategy for dealing with it involves endangering this school."

"You don't know that."

"I don't know anything because you haven't told me anything, which means I wouldn't approve, which means you are endangering this school."

The Doctor blinked. "You've been spending too much time around Adelaide."

"Are you suggesting that's a bad thing, Doctor?" Adelaide frowned, bringing up a hologram for Clara to see.

"What's that?" Clara frowned at it.

"It's a scanner. We're scanning." The Doctor shook his head. "Why do we keep you around?"

"Because Adelaide needs help dealing with you and you both need a conscience." Clara nodded at the hologram. "Scanning for what?"

"Any alien technology in this vicinity should show up." The Doctor leaned against the console. "I used to have a teacher exactly like you once."

"You still do." Clara pointed at him. "Pay attention."

Adelaide frowned. "I think I remember that professor..."

Clara paused. "Wait, did you two go to school together?"

"Overlapping times. The Doctor was a bit older."

"Did you know each other? Before traveling together?" Clara had been told the rough version of how the Time Lords had met.

Adelaide shrugged. "Met once when his child was in my class, but we believe that's it. It's all we can remember, at least." She flicked something on the console, bringing up the image of the robotic they were tracking.

Clara jumped, gasping. "What the hell is it?"

"A Skovox Blitzer. One of the deadliest killing machines ever created. Probably homed in here because of artron emissions." The Doctor came to stand beside Adelaide, looking at the screen she was working at. "You've had enough of them in this area over the years. There's enough explosive in its armory to take out the whole planet."

"Then leave it alone."

"Sooner or later it will creep from its hidey-hole and some military idiot will try to attack it." The Doctor reached over, cutting off the projection. "The world is full of PE teachers."

Clara sighed. "So, your insanely dangerous plan is?" The Doctor held up what appeared to be a watch. "A new watch. Tiny bit disappointed."

"This is a very special watch." He put it on, hitting a button and vanishing.

Clara stepped back. "Doctor? Oi! Ow!" She covered her nose. "Did you just flick my nose?" She frowned. "You're invisible."

"Very good, Clara." Adelaide nodded.

"Oh my God, that's incredible," Clara laughed.

"Correct. I am invisible and I am incredible."

Adelaide jumped when he touched her hand, kissing it despite being invisible. "It's just a matter of reversing light waves," she explained. The Doctor flickered into view again, giving her hand another kiss before turning to face Clara. "We'll be able to give the Blitzer a trace of alien tech and then lead it back here."

"But we don't want it to scan me, hence invisible."

"So you're...you're leading the thing here? To a school? My...my school?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "My school? Oh, that is telling."

"This is the only suitably empty place in the area," Adelaide explained. "The Doctor has set up a circle of Chronodyne generators – time mines – around the school."

He shrugged. "Bit unstable." He tossed one of the devices to Clara. "We switch them on, the Blitzer gets sucked into a big old time vortex, billions of years into the future. It's dead easy. Tiny bit boring. Adelaide'll bring a book and I'll bring a sandwich."

"And me. You're not doing this alone." Clara threw the device back.

"We don't need you this time." The Doctor shook his head. "We'll see you tomorrow. We'll all go somewhere nice. Ancient Egypt. Crocodilopolis. They worship a big crocodile there, so the name is a useful coincidence."

"It's not a coincidence, Doctor..."

He waved Clara away. "Go and canoodle with your boyfriend." Clara's eyes widened. "Come on. We weren't born yesterday. Far from it."

"You did recognize him."

He shrugged. "Possibly reminded me of a certain dashing young time traveler." The Doctor winked at Adelaide, who could only shake her head.

"Oh, of course you recognized him." Clara sighed. "I...sorry. Stupid. I...I underestimated you." She knew that Adelaide had realized who he was, but she'd assumed the Doctor honestly hadn't known.

"It's easily done. There's a lot to estimate." The Doctor grinned at Adelaide.

"And you...you like him?"

The Doctor squeezed Adelaide's hand. "Yes, I like him very, very much. Go home and canoodle." He waved her off. "Doctor's orders. Come on."

Clara shook her head. "Just this once, I'm doing what I'm told." She paused at the door. "What do you two do when you're alone? Canoodle?"

"Clara, that is a very personal question." Adelaide shook her head, but the Doctor wiggled his impressive eyebrows.

The human winced. "Oh God, I really shouldn't have asked." She hurried out of the TARDIS.

The Doctor turned, using Adelaide's held hand to turn her so that she was leaning back against the console. "You know, I don't really feel like canoodling," he mumbled, bringing her hands up to kiss again. He'd developed a love for doing that, randomly kissing her hands whenever she would let him. He especially liked to kiss each individual freckle.

"I do have a class soon."

"A quick cuddle?"

Adelaide leaned forward, letting them put their foreheads together. "When was the last time we cuddled?"

"Then we should do it more often."

"And is now the best time? When I have to go teach a class full of teenagers soon?"

"Pretty please?"

Adelaide sighed. "Are you using manners to convince me?"

He grinned.

 **A/N: The Time Lords have really reached a peak in their relationship :)**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _Nightingrave: I'm so glad to hear that you love it! :)_


	12. The Caretaker

**The Caretaker**

By the end of the day, Adelaide was soundly reminded why she'd not decided to stay a professor instead of traveling.

It was incredibly boring, at least if you were a Time Lady teaching human children. She supposed it'd be better if she was teaching young Time Lords, but Adelaide was not in the mood the test that theory.

There had been a reason she'd run out into the universe after all.

The Doctor seemed to be amused by Adelaide's annoyance and the fact she retreated to the TARDIS whenever she could in order to escape. He kept trying to say that it was because she loved to be in his presence.

By the time night had arisen, Adelaide was thankful for a chance to do something besides answering human childrens' questions or deal with a Doctor who was getting increasingly bored with waiting.

They exited the caretaker shed together, the Doctor holding up his sonic. "And we're off." He took Adelaide's hand, kissing it. "You sure you don't want to come?"

"One of us needs to be responsible and ensure that no one's in the school."

He made a face. "I hate being responsible."

"Which is why I'm the somewhat responsible one." She squeezed his hand. "Now, off you go."

The Doctor hurried off. Adelaide turned to go back into the school and set up the room they'd be using. Her sonic was set to tell her if anything changed about the devices, so she didn't feel that worried about monitoring everything from inside the TARDIS.

She was a bit annoyed it was the Doctor who got to be the one to lure the Blitzer instead of her, but she was conscious enough to know that it was a better division of labors to have them in these roles instead of reversed.

The logic didn't stop her from being a bit jealous.

Adelaide had just reached the room, placing the final device, when her sonic dinged. She frowned at it. That meant that something had happened to one of the devices, only there was no way she could know which one.

They probably should have swapped roles because the Doctor actually knew where he'd put the rest of the devices and what to do if some were missing.

She'd been a biologist, after all, not a time-scientist, as they'd established multiple times before.

Adelaide had just started to try and contact the Doctor via their sonics when it dinged again.

Another device was gone.

This was not good. This was very not good.

She didn't have a chance to do anything before the doors burst open, an invisible Doctor running in while turning off the watch. He froze when he saw the red lights on the circle of chairs. "What? Red? No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

The Blitzer, sadly, was not far behind. "Range 1.49 scan complete! Problem. Problem!"

The Doctor, after exchanging a confused look with Adelaide, spun to face the Blitzer. "Listen! We're unarmed! We're peaceful! Don't you understand? We...we know that you shouldn't be on this planet but we can help you with that. We..."

"Problem solution." The Blitzer raised its weapon. "Destroy."

They didn't have a chance to do anything before the other set of doors opened, Danny Pink striding in with a device in hand. Clearly, the source of the issue. "I want a word with you."

"Get back!" Adelaide shouted as the Blitzer turned to Danny.

"Problem, solution. Destroy!" the Blitzer started to fire at him. Danny was able to duck out of the way, dropping the device and sending it sliding towards the circle of chairs.

Danny grabbed a chair, trying to attack the Blitzer with it. "No! Get away from me!"

The Doctor soniced the device Danny had dropped, activating the vortex. It instantly started to pull in things around the room, including the Blitzer and Danny. The Time Lords, thankfully, managed to hang on to things with enough strength that they weren't pulled in too.

"Temporal disrupt! Warning! Warning! Temporal failure!"

Clara ran into the room, rushing up to Danny and pulling him down, keeping him from being pulled in. "No! No, no, no, no! Doctor, stop! Adelaide!"

"Warning. System failure. Abort! Abort!" the Doctor turned off the vortex the second the Blitzer fell in, the Time Lords looking to each other before the Doctor picked up the device Danny had dropped.

"Oh, oh, well done, PE, brilliant work," he said, very clearly sarcastic. "What's this? A chronodyne generator? I'll just deactivate that, shall I? I've got a swimming certificate so that qualifies me to meddle with higher technology. Never mind that some people are actually trying to save the planet. Oh, no. There's only room in my head for cross-country and the offside rule!" the Doctor looked to Adelaide, still huffing, and was thankful to see that the Time Lady didn't bother scolding him.

Yes, this was one reason she'd traveled alone. Sometimes people meddled with things they didn't understand and it led to disastrous consequences.

"Danny, what are you doing here?" Clara asked the man.

"I was checking up on him!" he pointed at the Doctor. "He's been up to something, fiddling with the electric, but what the...no...what? Did you see that thing? Tell me you saw that thing."

"I saw the thing, yeah." Clara turned to the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide, are we safe? Is the planet safe? It's gone?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, for the moment. But the thing is, you see, the chronodyne generators have to be precisely aligned to generate the vortex. But the sergeant here, he went and moved one."

"But the chronodyne worked. It's gone."

Adelaide scanned the center of where the vortex had been. "Not far enough." She showed the readings to the Doctor. "The vortex will open here again, but not in a billion years."

"Then when?"

"Er...seventy-four hours," the Doctor nodded. "Three days? Three days to think of something new because now it knows what to expect. Now it has scanned us" he gestured between himself and Adelaide, "and it will kill us on sight, thanks to PE here."

Danny shook his head at Clara, clearly still not quite believing everything that was happening. "Clara, why are you talking to them like that? Why are you using words like chronodyne? Was that thing a space thing? Oh..." he stumbled back. "Oh my God, you're from space. You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool!"

"It's a...play! For the summer fete."

"It's a what?" the Doctor asked, glancing up from the notebook he'd started jotting down in.

"Yes, it's a play." Clara looked to the Time Lords. "Shut up, it's a play. We are rehearsing a play. A...surprise play. And...er...you see, the vortex thing is...is a lighting effect. Very clever. And that thing is...is one of the kids. In fancy dress. Really, really good fancy dress."

Danny shook his head, crossing his arms. "How stupid do you think I am?"

"I'm willing to put a number on it," the Doctor offered.

"I'm not a moron, Clara. They're not the caretaker or the biology teacher. They're your parents. Your space parents."

"Oh, genius," the Doctor scoffed. "That is...that is really, really brilliant reasoning. On par with Adelaide's abilities. How can you think we're her parents when we all look exactly the same age?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows at the Doctor. "We do not all look the same age."

"I was being kind to Clara." He grinned at her, winking, before stepping towards Danny. "Right, I'm going to hypnotize him. I'm going to erase his memory."

Clara hurried to stand between the two men. "Doctor, stop!"

"Tiny little brain, only take a moment."

"He's my boyfriend."

The Doctor hardly seemed phased. "Well, I'll try not to erase the whole thing. I'll leave the bits that..." and then his eyes widened as Clara's words really registered.

Clara nodded. "He's my boyfriend. I thought you'd figure this out."

"Him?" the Doctor pointed at him.

"Yes, Doctor," Adelaide said, nodding.

"No, he's not."

"Yes, he is."

Danny nodded. "Yes, I am."

The Doctor shook his head. "But he's a PE teacher. You wouldn't go out with a PE teacher. It's a mistake. You've made a boyfriend error."

"I am not a PE teacher," Danny reminded him. "I am a maths teacher."

"You're a soldier." He looked to Clara. "Why would you go out with a soldier? Why not get a dog or a big plant?"

"Because I love him!"

The Doctor frowned. "Why would you say that? Is this part of the surprise play?"

Adelaide stepped up to the Doctor. "Doctor, stay focused."

"Oh, it's a roller coaster with you tonight, isn't it? What about the handsome one, the one with the bow tie?"

Clara made a face. "Who? Adrian? No, no, no. He's just a friend and not my type."

Danny shook his head. "Clara, are you going to explain any of this? Who are these people?"

"The Doctor and Adelaide are..." but Clara paused.

"Go on," the Doctor nodded.

"Yes, explain," Danny agreed. "Who are they? Why have you never mentioned them?"

"Because they're aliens."

Danny eyed her. "Er...are you an alien?"

"No, no, no, I'm still from Blackpool. Me, Adelaide, and the Doctor, we travel through time and space."

"Exhibit A." The Doctor walked over to the small stage they'd left the TARDIS before going back to the caretaker's shed, pulling aside the curtains to reveal it to Danny.

"It's called a TARDIS, but it's disguised as an old police phone box," Clara explained as Adelaide walked over to join the Time Lord.

"It's bigger on the inside," the Doctor whispered.

"And it's bigger on the inside than the outside."

The Doctor opened the doors. "Voila."

"And we travel the universe in it."

Danny climbed up onto the stage, doing the classic look in and out that all the Doctor's companions did. "And what about that thing? Did you bring that here?"

"No, we're protecting you from that 'thing'," Adelaide said.

"You said it was coming back."

"Yes, it is coming back," the Doctor nodded, "thanks to you."

"This is a school. We have to evacuate, call the Army."

"And that is the most dangerous thing right there." The Doctor closed the TARDIS door. "Are you sure hypnotizing's not on the menu?"

"Yes," Adelaide and Clara said in unison.

"But we need to get help. This is an emergency."

"Look, take him away. Shut him up, shut him down." The Doctor waved a hand. "Up or down, it doesn't matter to me. Adelaide and I've got a lot of work to do. Again."

Clara looked between them. "Will you be okay?"

"Why wouldn't we be okay? We were fine till you two blundered in."

Danny frowned. "Am I just being ignored?"

Clara took Danny's arm, helping him down the stairs. "Come on, Danny. It's all right, it's...come on, it's all fine. You'll be okay. Let's er...get those legs moving. That's it, down those stairs. Yep, that's it. This can all be explained and everything will be fine."

"And when this is all over, you can finish the job."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, you've explained us to him. You haven't explained him to us." The Time Lords stepped into the TARDIS, closing the doors behind them.

|C-S|

Adelaide greatly regretted deciding to be a professor while they prepared for the Blitzer. She'd been all for it when they'd thought it was just for a day, but now she had to maintain the ruse for days on end. A few of the students made it worthwhile, but the majority of them didn't care about biology. It was all she could do to keep from snapping at them.

She'd always thought she was a patient person – at least, more patient than the Doctor – but even she had points of no return. She honestly just couldn't stand being trapped in one place for too long. A day she could manage, but more than that...her manners started to fail her.

Thankfully, the Doctor and she didn't tend to be stuck in one place doing nothing for days on end, but when they were...he enjoyed the fact she didn't bother correcting his manners.

He always tried to get the most out of it.

Though, by the end of the day, she honestly looked forward to being back in the TARDIS with the Doctor. It was strange to want to be with someone instead of alone at the end of the day, but Adelaide couldn't help but like being around the Doctor.

She'd just returned to the console room after taking a moment to change after another teacher spilt a particularly nasty smelling cup of coffee on her when Clara also entered the TARDIS. The Doctor was at the console building something for their plan.

"Good afternoon, Clara," Adelaide called to the human, nodding.

The Doctor glanced up. "Thanks for keeping out of our way. You haven't brought Dave with you, I hope?"

"His name's Danny," Clara corrected. "And no, I haven't. I've er...I explained it all to him. He gets it. He took it really well."

"Pass me that synestic, please." Adelaide passed it over from the box beside him.

"So, when the Blitzer comes back, are you going to catch him with that?" Clara nodded at what the Doctor was working on, coming up to the other side of him.

"It'll be a long, fiddly job. It's going to take me at least twenty-four hours. Even longer if people besides Adelaide keep talking to me, so do keep going."

"If it comes back Thursday night...are you sure about that? Cos you said the chronodyne is unstable."

"If you want to bother someone, go and bother PE."

"He's a maths teacher," Adelaide reminded him.

"That's a shame, I like maths."

"Not a soldier."

The Doctor looked up, frowning at Clara. "Interesting."

"What is?"

"I'm bored, Adelaide is bored." The Doctor stepped back. "Let's go somewhere fun. What do you say? Do you want to see the Thames frozen over?"

Adelaide nodded, both Time Lords having realized what Clara was doing. "Oh, those frost fairs are lovely." She moved around the console after the Doctor, turning off everything he flicked on.

Clara looked thankful she didn't have to do the same. "But you can't. The Skovox thing."

"It's a time machine," the Doctor shrugged. "We can get back straightaway like we always do on your dates. Remember when you had to eat two meals in a row?"

Clara looked at Adelaide. "I just think, with the school in danger..." But Danny shimmered into view off to the side. "Danny, why are you..."

"They already know I'm here. That's why they're talking like that. They're being clever."

The Doctor nodded. "Now you mention it, being Time Lords, we can feel a light shield aura when it's right next to us."

"Oh ho, ho," Danny scoffed. "Time Lords? Might have known."

"Might have known what?"

"Well, the accent's good," Danny gestured at the Doctor, "but you can always spot the aristocracy. It's in the...the attitude." Adelaide couldn't help raise her eyebrows at that. She did honestly agree with Danny, though she wouldn't have put it quite the same way.

"Danny..."

"Now, Time Lords, do you salute those?"

The Doctor's expression hardened. "Definitely not."

"Ah. Sir!" Danny stood to attention and saluted him.

"And you do not call me sir."

"As you wish, sir. Absolutely, sir."

Adelaide stepped forward, holding a hand out to stop the Doctor. "Danny, I am going to recommend that you leave. And" she pointed at him "don't you dare attempt to salute a scientist."

"Adelaide, Doctor, this is stupid," Clara shook her head, "this is unfair."

"One thing, Clara," Danny turned to her. "I'm a soldier, guilty as charged. You see him? He's an officer."

"I am not an officer."

"I'm the one who carries you out of the fire. He's the one who lights it."

"Danny," Adelaide said, "please leave now."

"Right away, ma'am."

"And don't you dare 'ma'am' me."

"Am I dismissed?"

"Yes, you are!" the Doctor snapped.

Danny pointed at him. "That's him. Look at him, right now. That's who he is." He stormed out of the TARDIS.

Adelaide pointed at the Doctor without looking at him. "Not the time for a comment." She pointed her other hand at Clara. "I expect you to scold your boyfriend as much as I am about to do the Doctor." Clara nodded, running after her boyfriend. "Even when someone speaks to you like that, Doctor, it is necessary that you not sink to their level."

"Don't tell me you're not upset..."

Adelaide looked to him. "You know you're a soldier, Doctor, and I know that I'm not. Those are facts we cannot deny."

The Doctor took her arm, turning her fully to face him. "Are you trying to defend him?"

"Danny assumes and generalizes. I do not like people who do either." She sighed. "Honestly, I really wish we could just run off..."

"We could..."

"You know, sometimes I hate to be the responsible one."

The Doctor grinned. "I thought I was a bad influence."

"And here I was hoping that I was a good one." She leaned closer, giving the Doctor a quick kiss before moving towards the TARDIS doors. "You can stay here and continue working, but I have to ensure that no one needs help for parents' evening."

"Are you actually going to be meeting the parents?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "I'm a substitute. Katheryn's returning tonight for it." She and the Doctor had tried to extend the teacher's vacation for at least a few days, but they hadn't been able to keep the woman away from parents' evening. She waved goodbye to the Doctor and stepped out of the TARDIS, finding the girl from before. "Hello."

"What's in the box?" the girl frowned. "It's not really a policeman, is it?"

"Would you like to know the truth?" The girl nodded. "It's a time machine that travels in space. And it usually contains a man who wants to keep preventing the end of the world and a woman who tries to help him."

Adelaide wasn't that surprised when the girl nodded. "Cool. So, that's really a spaceship?" She stepped forward, but Adelaide held out a hand to stop her.

"No interruptions."

She shrugged. "End of the world for me tonight, whatever you two do. Parents' evening."

"What's your name?"

"Courtney Woods. Can I go in space?"

Adelaide smiled. "I'll discuss it with him. But not at the moment." She gestured the girl out with her. She and the Doctor had two days to figure out a new plan to conquer the Blitzer.

|C-S|

Adelaide was fairly certain it was a bit shocking for Danny to see her and Katheryn enter the gymnasium where they were holding parents' evening very clearly discussing things together. The adult was cleverer than the kids she taught – nothing compared to Time Lords, but better than what Adelaide had been experiencing for the past few days – and it was enjoyable to talk to someone who knew something about science for a bit.

But she did manage to convince the woman that there was no need for her to stay behind for parents' evening, as she'd only taught the children for little more than two days. She left Katheryn with her personal phone number and hurried off to find the Doctor as the various parents filed in.

However, she didn't get far before her sonic made a particular noise. A few moments later, she heard the Doctor hurrying down the corridors towards her. She hurried back into the gymnasium, stepping up to Clara. "Terribly sorry," she said, smiling at the parents, "but may I have a quick word with you, Clara? Rather urgent."

Thankfully, Clara didn't argue, hurrying out of the gym with Adelaide after taking a second to say one final thing to the parents. What she didn't expect was Danny coming out with them.

The Doctor gestured them all outside, as they didn't want to be overheard. "What's happening?" Clara asked both Time Lords, looking between them.

"The vortex is opening."

Danny shook his head. "You said Thursday night. Right, hall, quick."

The Doctor pointed at him. "PE, shut up." He pulled out his sonic, handing it to Clara. "Clara, it'll scan the area. If it gets to parents' evening, it'll kill them all."

Danny's eyes widened. "We've got to evacuate."

"Danny, quiet," Adelaide snapped.

"What do I do?" Clara continued.

"It'll be here any second. Get to the hall. Give it some squirts of helicon energy, setting number forty-one. No more than three seconds each, random pulses. Distract it, then you lead it away from the hall, give us two minutes."

Clara nodded. "Then what?"

"Run straight to the TARDIS," Adelaide said.

"But your gadget isn't ready yet," Danny cut in. "Twenty-four hours, you said."

"That has been revised to two minutes if we're lucky." Adelaide turned to Clara. "Clara, go, now."

"On my way." Clara ran off.

"You're using her like a decoy?"

"No, not like a decoy, as a decoy," the Doctor corrected. "Don't they teach you anything at stupid school?"

"Well, is there anything I can do?"

"Yes," the Doctor nodded. "Yes, and this is very, very important. Leave us alone!" He took Adelaide's hand and the two ran off. They didn't like having to use Clara like this, but it was the only option at the moment.

|C-S|

The Time Lords hurried out of the TARDIS as they heard the Blitzer burst through the doors, Clara shouting at them. "Doctor, Adelaide, now! It's got to be now!"

"Twenty seconds," the Blitzer said.

"Am I green?" the Doctor asked Adelaide, trying to see the light on his pack himself. "Am I green?"

"You're green!" Adelaide grabbed Clara, pulling her back as the Doctor stepped forward with a microphone in hand.

"Stop!" he ordered, his voice slightly altered. "Skovox Blitzer!"

The Blitzer paused. "Awaiting orders."

"Superior Skovox Artificer. Analyze stop. Analyze stop."

The Blitzer flashed blue. "Superior recognized. Pattern 1-1-0. Orders. Orders."

Clara frowned. "Why's it listening to him?"

"Rough copy. It thinks he's its general."

"Initiate input," the Doctor continued. "Commence shutdown protocol. No conflict. Conclusion?"

"Problem solution."

"Conclusion?"

"Final input code missing." The Blitzer went red. "Emergency terminate. Initiate self-destruct in 9...8..."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "The input code. I forgot the final input code." He began to frantically type, Adelaide unable to help him.

"7...6...5..."

"Do it now!" Clara cried.

"We need time," Adelaide said. "We need to distract it."

"What can we do?"

"3...2...1..."

Before Adelaide or Clara could move, Danny called out from behind the Blitzer. "Oi, Skovox! Over here!" Danny reappeared, having used the watch again, and ran towards the Blitzer, actually doing a somersault in the air above the Blitzer to land beside Clara and Adelaide.

"Under attack!" the Blitzer said.

"Artificier! Artificer! Stop!" the Doctor stepped forward. "Confirm stop, override final input code."

The Blitzer paused for a moment before it turned blue again. "Conde accepted. Abort self-destruct. Orders accepted. Stop. Stop. Stop." It powered down.

Clara turned and hugged Danny tightly, Adelaide moving over to take the Doctor's hand as well. "Oh my God!" Clara gasped. "Oh my God, you were amazing! Oh my God, you were so brilliant."

Danny laughed. "Well, yeah, I was okay, wasn't I? I was behind you every step of the way. Had to make sure you were safe." He looked to the Time Lords. "You okay?"

The Doctor nodded, maintaining a tight grip on Adelaide's hand. "Okay."

"Just okay?" Clara asked.

"It's all right, it doesn't matter," Danny looked back to Clara. "I don't need them to like me. It doesn't matter if they like or hate me. I just need to do exactly one thing for you." He looked back at them. "Am I right?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes."

"What? What one thing?"

"I need to be good enough for you. That's why he's angry. Just in case I'm not."

Clara raised her eyebrows. She had known that this situation was difficult for the Time Lords, they'd made that clear enough. "He...er...he did just save the whole world."

The Doctor shrugged. "Yeah, yeah. Good start."

|C-S|

Adelaide stood by the console as the Doctor cast the Blitzer out into space, watching Courtney Woods with a bit of apprehension. The girl was hanging onto the door and looked either terrified or sick...or both.

"Farewell, Skovox Blitzer," the Doctor said, standing beside Courtney. "Have a nice war. So, Courtney Woods, impressed yet?"

"Actually, I'm feeling a bit ill."

"Ah, it can be a bit overwhelming." The Doctor nodded. "But look. The Olveron Cluster. A million stars, a hundred million inhabited planets." Courtney, instead of staying to look, gagged and turned to run...though she didn't get far. Adelaide winced as the Doctor turned. "Ah, yes. There has been a spillage."

"Which you are cleaning up," Adelaide said, moving to take his place staring out into space.

 **A/N: Even Danny could see that Adelaide isn't a soldier. And good thing too - Adelaide may have forgotten her own warning to the Doctor if Danny had dared...**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _Nightingrave: You know, sometimes I can't either :)_


	13. Darkness

**Darkness**

Clara kept looking back to ensure the Time Lords hadn't wandered off again – namely, that the Doctor hadn't, as she found him mainly to blame for the current situation. Of course, given Adelaide hadn't stopped him, the Time Lady was also responsible, but the Doctor needed more scolding at the moment. "Courtney Woods. She has gone crazy. She's uncontrollable. She took your psychic paper. She's been using it as fake ID."

"To get into museums?" the Doctor said, honestly sounding serious.

Clara blinked at that. "No, no, no. To buy White Lightning or alcopops or whatever."

The Doctor shook his head. "I've no idea what you're talking about. What...what is Courtney Woods?"

"Disruptive influence?" Adelaide offered. "She was in the TARDIS."

"Doing what?"

"Throwing up."

He nodded. "Oh, her. Oh, that was ages ago."

"For us, Doctor. Not for Courtney or Clara."

Clara sighed. "Look, she says that you told her that she wasn't special."

"Rubbish."

"She says that's what sent her off the rails." They'd reached where they'd left the TARDIS, a supply cupboard like always. The Doctor scoffed. "Doctor, I know, I know. But I know that Adelaide has told you that you say something like that to somebody, it hurts. Especially if you're somebody of her age, especially if you're you. Doctor, it can affect her whole life."

The Doctor scoffed again, all of them entering the TARDIS to find Courtney standing at the console. "Oi! Give over!"

Courtney held up paper towels. "I got stuff to clean up with."

The Doctor frowned. "What?"

"And I got these from the chemist." She held up her wrists.

"Vortex manipulators?"

"Travel sickness."

"Good." The Doctor nodded. "Because Adelaide doesn't like people being sick in the TARDIS. No being sick. But as many manners as you can manage, she likes that. And no hanky-panky."

Clara's eyes widened. "Doctor!"

"Sorry," he shrugged, "that's the rules."

Clara moved towards Courtney. "Look, Courtney, you're not going to be needing those because you're not going to be doing any traveling. Adelaide, make the Doctor tell her."

"Tell her what?"

Adelaide turned to the Doctor. She hadn't heard the Doctor tell Courtney this originally, so she certainly hadn't been happy when Clara had told them about it...and that the Doctor hadn't told her himself. "Tell her she's special."

"Do I have to?"

Clara stepped forward. "Do you really think I'm not special? You can't just take me away like that. It's like you kicked a big hole in the side of my life. You really think it? I'm nothing? I'm not special?"

The Doctor made to scoff again, but Adelaide raised her eyebrows at him. He turned to Courtney. "How'd you like to be the first woman on the moon? Is that special enough for you."

Courtney shrugged. "Yeah, alright."

He grinned. "Okay. Now we can do something interesting." He ran to the console, ignoring Clara's shouts as he set them all into motion.

|C-S|

The fact they had to use the spacesuits from Mars was not a fact that went unnoticed by Clara. She'd never actually heard the Time Lords discuss what had happened, just get the general sense that it had been with Caroline and it had been notably bad. It was obvious that the two of them were trying to ignore where the suits were from as they both suddenly got far tenser around each other while they all used the suits.

She would have recommended they just pick somewhere else, but Courtney was looking forward to the moon and the Time Lords were not people easily convinced.

They exited the TARDIS into what looked like a storage area. "This isn't the moon." Courtney frowned. "Where are we?"

The Doctor looked around. "On a recycled space shuttle. 2049, judging by that prototype version of the Bennett oscillator." He nodded at a particular thing and they all removed their helmets.

"Where's the gravity coming from?" Adelaide mumbled, bouncing a bit in place to test it.

Clara frowned at a bit of writing on the cylinders that surrounded them, a few American flag drawings dotted among them. "What are they?"

The Doctor flashed them with a sonic. "About a hundred nuclear bombs." An alarm sounded and the Doctor moved towards the window. "Ah. We're on our way to the moon. Check that." He stepped back. "We're about to crash into it! Hold on! Hold on!"

They all grabbed onto cargo nets around the room, Clara holding onto Courtney. "Why didn't you just tell her you didn't mean it?"

The room shook as the shuttle hit the surface, making a horrible noise until it finally came to a stop. The door opened and three people, led by a woman, strode in. "Who the hell do you think you are?" the woman held up a gun at them.

Adelaide resisted the urge to comment on the woman's manners, which seemed to shock Clara – and the Doctor if he'd been paying attention to her at that moment.

"Why have you got all these nuclear bombs?"

"I'm not going to give you another chance."

"Oh?" the Doctor snorted. "Well, you're just going to have to shoot us, then. Shoot the little girl first." He gestured at Courtney.

"What?"

"Yes. She doesn't want to stand there watching us getting shot, does she? She'll be terrified. Girl first, then her teacher, then me, and then Adelaide. You'll have to spend a lot of time shooting the last two because we'll keep on regenerating." He frowned. "In fact, I'm not entirely sure that I won't keep on regenerating forever, especially when I keep sacrificing myself for Adelaide."

"Maybe don't tell them that," Adelaide mumbled, bouncing in place again.

"Adelaide, what are you doing?" Clara asked, frowning.

"Gravity test."

"So, it'll be very time-consuming and messy, and rather wasteful," the Doctor continued, "because I think Adelaide and I might just possibly be able to help you. You see, we're super-intelligent alien beings who fly in time and space. Are you going to shoot us?"

The woman, after hesitating for a moment, lowered the gun. "No."

"Good. Why have you got all these nuclear bombs? No, no, no. Easier question. What's wrong with my yo-yo?" he pulled a yo-yo from his suit pocket.

Clara looked at Adelaide expecting comradeship at the Doctor's antics, but the Time Lady didn't look surprised. "Doctor, it goes up and down."

"Exactly," Adelaide said.

The human's eyes widened. "Ah."

The Doctor pointed at her. "Ah ha. We should be bouncing about this cabin like little fluffy clouds. But we're not. What is the matter with the moon?"

The woman shook her head. "Nobody knows."

Clara eyed the Time Lords. "Do you know what's wrong with the moon?"

"It's put on weight."

"How can the moon put on weight?"

"Oh, lots of ways." He shrugged. "Gravity bombs, axis alignment systems, planet shellers."

"So it's alien."

Adelaide frowned. "There must be chaos on Earth. The tides will be so high that they drown whole cities."

The woman nodded. "Yeah."

"So what are you doing about it?" The woman took a case off the wall. "This?"

"That's what you do with aliens, isn't it? Blow them up?"

|C-S|

The Doctor managed to convince the woman, Lundvik, that Courtney should be the first one to walk on the moon. "Wow. Wow! One small thing for a thing. One enormous thing for a thingy thing."

Lundvik sighed. "So much for history." She and the rest of the crew led the way towards a large modular settlement in a nearby crater, with Courtney lagging behind a bit in order to take some pictures of her surroundings. "There was a mining survey, Mexicans. Something happened up here. Nobody knows what. That's when the trouble began back on Earth. High tide everywhere at once. The greatest natural disaster in history." They reached the airlock, which was wide open.

"Cobwebs?" Clara nodded at the things on the edges of the door.

"Henry, go back and prime the bombs."

"Er...is there any instructions?"

"There's a switch on each of them. The light goes red."

"They won't go off?"

"No, not till I fiddle with this thing." Lundvik held up the case.

Henry nodded, still looking worried. "Okay." He hurried back to the shuttle, which did not look as though it had properly survived the crash.

Lundvik turned to the rest of them, the Doctor already at the doorway scanning the webs. "Shall we?"

"Is that the best you could get?" the Doctor said, not looking at Adelaide when he knew that she'd be raising her eyebrows.

Lundvik shrugged. "Second-hand space shuttle, third-hand astronauts." She was the first one inside the module, with Adelaide ending up between her and the Doctor. The Time Lord kept a tight grip on her hand as they moved through the dark, no one but Lundvik having a torch.

They closed the door to the corridor behind them and Adelaide made a note to always carry a torch with her in the future. "How many people here?" the Doctor asked, not moving far away from Adelaide as he examined the small room.

"Four. Minera Luna San Pedro. It was privately financed. They were doing a mineral survey up here."

Clara passed Adelaide a large torch which, thankfully worked. "Any messages?"

"Pretty much all the satellites had been whacked out of orbit," one of the other crew members said. "They managed to send back some screams."

"So then you came up here to rescue them with your bombs?"

"Not quite."

"They disappeared ten years ago."

The Doctor frowned. "Nobody came?"

"There was no shuttle."

"You had one."

"It was in a museum. They'd cut the back off it so kids could ride in it. We'd stopped going into space. Nobody cared. Not until..."

She was cut off by Courtney's scream. "Courtney!" Clara shouted, rushing off in the direction the girl had wandered. She was standing opposite a spacesuit completely encased in a cocoon. "Oh my God. Tell me there wasn't anyone inside that thing."

The Doctor, who'd run over too, scanned the body. "I could, but it wouldn't make it true, and Adelaide prefers..."

"Not the time, Doctor," Adelaide mumbled, making him step back by her side again. It had been a long time since she'd been in darkness or a space suit for this long. Since she'd needed the Doctor nearby to keep her from worrying too much. The Doctor tried to keep their adventures in some sort of light and out of the vacuum of space, though sometimes it couldn't be helped. She especially didn't like that they were in a group of practical strangers holding hands; in general, this was too much for her.

Now, she tolerated it for the sake of having the Doctor near her.

Especially when they were currently walking about a dark abandoned spaceship on the moon with no way to breathe if something horribly malfunctioned.

"I'll get some power back on," one of the crew said, moving past them.

"Come on," Clara moved Courtney away. "Now, Courtney, come here. Don't look. You all right?"

"I'm okay."

Together, the Time Lords cut the corpse down. Clara moved Courtney further away, trying to shelter the girl from this as best she could. "Hey. Look. Look at me. Look. It's all right if you're not."

Courtney shook her head. "I'm fine. What did it?"

"Perhaps something trying to determine how you're put together," Adelaide mumbled. "Or how you taste."

Courtney took in a sharp breath. "Do we have guns?"

Lundvik shook her head. "Not unless you brought some."

The Doctor shrugged. "Chicken, apparently." All of the lights turned on with a hum. "Save the air." They all took off their helmets, Adelaide greatly relishing the influx of oxygen to calm her slightly panicked brain.

She may love learning about space, but that didn't mean she was particularly a fan of walking around it in the dark.

The Doctor moved towards a computer console, pulling up the survey records. "They didn't find anything."

Lundvik glanced over at him. "Eh?"

"The Mexicans. They didn't find any minerals on the moon at all. Nada."

Adelaide went over to a table, covered in photographs of the moon. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"Lines of tectonic stress."

Lundvik shook her head. "That's the Mare Fecunditatis. It's been there since the Apollo days. It's always been there."

"No, these are much bigger." She started to go through the other photos, holding them up for the Doctor and the others to see. "Sea of Tranquillity. Sea of Nectar. Sea of Ingenuity. Sea of Crises."

"Meaning?"

The lights flickered. "Meaning, Clara," the Doctor said, "that the moon, this little planetoid that's been tagging along beside you for a hundred million years, which gives you light at night and seas to sail on, is in the process of falling to bits."

There was a bang and a rumble and the entire room started to shake. Soon, a high-pitched sound and a scuttling sound joined the fracas until everything stilled again, though the lights were off again. And something was still moving around them.

"What the hell was that?"

"Duke, is that you?" Lundvik called into her comm..

"I don't sound anything like that."

"Can you try and get the lights back on?"

"That's what I'm doing."

"Torch." The Doctor grabbed Lundvik's, moving around the room. "Whatever it is, it's in here." He moved closer to an adjoining corridor, tracking the sound. "I think we've found your alien." A gigantic spider stepped into the corridor. "Back, back, back! We need a door. A door, a door!"

"Here! Here!" Clara ran to it. "The door's locked."

"Come on, come on! There's no power to work it. Come on!"

"Doctor."

Adelaide pulled Clara and Courtney down behind a table. "Stay still. It's sensing fast movement, it can't see you."

The Doctor nodded. "There must be another exit through there." He flashed his torch in the direction." They all started to move. "Slowly. Slowly." They could hear the spider moving around them. "Head to that exit. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly." They moved across the room as carefully as they could. "Gently, gently. When I say run, run."

Lundvik frowned. "Who made you the boss?" Which did not help Adelaide at that moment, because while this wasn't a bus, it was horribly close.

"Well, you say run, then." The Doctor, thankfully, didn't push it.

But Lundvik gasped. "Duke!" The man had emerged from the corridor and, before he could do anything, was attacked by the spider. "Duke!"

One of the doors opened. "Run! We have power. Run!"

"Quick, it's shutting." The door shut before Courtney could make it through, the girl getting trapped in the center of the room.

"Miss!"

Clara ran back to the door, trying to get it to open again. "Courtney! Courtney!"

"Miss!"

Somehow, the gravity in the room was shut off and Courtney was floating in the dark. "Courtney! The power's gone again."

"It's killed him. It's coming in here! Doctor, it's coming in here!"

The Doctor rushed up beside Clara, trying to use his sonic to open the door. "You'll be okay!"

Lundvik, standing back a bit with Adelaide as the Time Lady attempted to keep herself calm, tried to use her comm. "Henry? Henry?"

"Courtney, look at me. Look at me! Courtney!" The spider had started to move across the ceiling towards where Courtney was hovering. "Try and get to the door! Try and get yourself down here." He managed to get the glass pane from the door. "Courtney, grab my yo-yo!" He tossed the yo-yo through the pane, Courtney managing to grab it, just as gravity returned to the room and she fell to the floor.

The spider fell with her, lunging, and Courtney screamed. She grabbed something from her bag, spraying it on the creature.

Clara rushed over to her, hugging her. "Courtney."

Courtney laughed, holding up the bottle to show the Time Lords once they'd turned to look at her. Honestly, the Doctor hadn't rushed to the human immediately, instead turning back to Adelaide. They hadn't paused at all, simply making eye contact before stepping back to join the rest of the group. "Kills ninety-nine percent of all known germs."

Adelaide nodded. "Good choice."

The Doctor took Adelaide's hand for a second. "Just don't try that at home, okay?"

Clara quickly looked her over. "You all right?"

"Why did I just fly? This is nuts."

Adelaide knelt beside the spider, sonicing it quickly. "A prokaryotic unicellular lifeform with non-chromosomal DNA..."

Clara blinked. "Adelaide?"

The Time Lady shook her head. "Sorry. It's a germ. You flew because that 1.3 billion tons of unstable mass shifted." She stood again.

Courtney moved closer to Clara. "I'm scared, Miss."

Lundvik stepped up to Duke's body, speaking quietly. "He'd just had a grand-daughter. Elina. She was his first. He was my teacher. He taught me how to fly. We were both given the sack on the same day."

The Time Lords nodded. "Which way to the Mare Fecunditatis?"

"Please, can I go home now?" Courtney shook her head. "I'm really...I'm really sorry, but I'd like to go home."

|C-S|

They walked in single file across the moon, Adelaide leading the way.

"Henry, come in," Lundvik was still trying to speak to the man she'd sent off at the beginning. "If you don't mind, Henry, come in."

Clara hurried forward to speak to the Doctor. "Doctor, this is dangerous now."

"It was dangerous before," he shrugged. "Everything's dangerous if you want it to be. Eating chips is dangerous. Crossing the road. It's no way to live your life. Tell her. You're supposed to be teaching her."

"Adelaide?" Clara asked.

The Time Lady glanced back. "He's technically correct. There's a reason I ran in the first place."

Clara sighed. "Look, I have a duty of care, okay? You know what that is?"

"Course we know what a duty of care is," the Doctor scoffed. "What are you suggesting? She's fine." He looked back at Courtney. "What are you, thirty-five?"

"Fifteen!"

Clara shook her head at the Time Lord.

|C-S|

The Doctor moved backward out of the console after depositing Courtney inside. "Now, don't touch anything."

Courtney paused at the console. "You got any games?"

"Oh, don't be so stupid!" the Doctor scoffed.

"Can I get reception up here?" Courtney held up her phone, but the Doctor had already stepped out of the TARDIS and locked the doors.

Clara frowned at him as he did that. "Why are you shutting her in? We don't need to stay, do we?"

"Eh?" the Doctor looked up, having glanced over at where Lundvik was messing with the bombs. Adelaide was standing next to Clara, close to the Doctor now, and he took her hand.

"It's obvious, isn't it? The moon doesn't break up."

"How do you know?"

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Because I've been in the future and the moon is still there. I think. You know the moon is still there, right?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Maybe it isn't the moon. Maybe it's a hologram or a big painting, or a special effect. Maybe it's a completely different moon."

"But you would know."

"We would?"

Clara nodded. "If the moon fell to bits in 2049, somebody would've mentioned it. It would have come up in conversation. So it doesn't break up. So the world doesn't end. So, let's just get in the TARDIS and go."

"Clara, there are some moments in time that Adelaide and I simply can't see," the Doctor said, suddenly truly serious. "Little eye-blinks. They don't look the same as other things. They're not clear. They're fuzzy, they're grey. Little moments in which big things are decided. And this is one of them. Just now, we can't tell what happens to the moon, because whatever happens to the moon hasn't been decided yet. And it's going to be decided here and now. Which very much sounds as though it's up to us."

Lundvik stepped up to the three of them. "None of you are going anywhere. I've lost my crew. We were the last astronauts. This is the last shuttle, these are the last nuclear bombs. We're the last chance for Earth, and you're staying to help me."

The Doctor nodded at the woman. "Decision made."

"Yeah."

 **A/N: Poor Adelaide, this entire episode won't be easy for her :(**


	14. Decisions

**Decisions**

The Doctor frowned as they looked at the Mexicans' survey and sample equipment. "What is killing the moon?" he mumbled.

"How can the moon die, though?" Clara asked.

"Everything does, sooner or later."

"Can we save it?"

Adelaide shrugged. "Depends what's killing it."

"There are the other three," Lundvik pointed at the spacesuits lying among the abandoned equipment. They hurried down to them, taking care to note the large cobwebs and cracks.

"Is it those germ things, then? Are they like cockroaches? Is it...is it an infestation?"

"Is it?" Lundvik looked at them.

"Well, we've only seen one of them. It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on 1.3 billion tons."

One of the spiders launched out of a crack at the Doctor, forcing him back as it attacked his helmet. Clara grabbed Courtney's disinfectant, but Lundvik stopped her. "It's a vacuum. It won't work."

Adelaide and Lundvik grabbed the spider and managed to pull it off the Doctor, making it hurry back into the crack.

"Well, that makes two," the Doctor said, blinking a bit and trying to look into the crack it had vanished into.

Clara blinked. "Sunlight?"

Adelaide frowned at her. "Sunlight?"

"If they're germs. My nan says it's the best disinfectant there is."

"Shine your light down there," the Doctor said.

Lundvik came over, using her torch to reveal the thousands of spiders inside. "Where have they come from?"

"Maybe they've been there all the time." The Doctor held a hand in, feeling the air. "It's warmish. They're multiplying, feeding, evolving."

The group stepped back quickly, moving back from the crack. "If the moon breaks up, it'll kill us all in about forty-five minutes," Lundvik said, looking at the Time Lords.

"I agree. Unless something else is going on." The Doctor flicked his yo-yo into another nearby fissure and made a face when it came back visibly wet.

Lundvik frowned. "There's no water on the moon."

The Doctor scanned it. "It's not water. It's amniotic fluid. The stuff that life comes from." He looked to Adelaide. "I've got to go down there."

"Doctor..." Lundvik said.

The Time Lord, nodding to Adelaide, had already moved towards the fissure. "Adelaide, get them back to the shuttle. Lundvik, get your bombs ready. Clara, get to the TARDIS. Get safe. Get Courtney safe. I will be back." He grabbed the germ spray from Clara.

"What? No. Doctor. Doctor!" He'd already jumped. Clara ran forwards, but Adelaide grabbed her shoulder to keep her back.

Honestly, Adelaide was annoyed that the Doctor was the one who got to go into the hole, but the fact it was clearly filled with some sort of liquid made it easier to tolerate. "He'll be back," she told Lundvik and Clara, hoping it was true.

She didn't want to have to jump down into the hole to save him.

"Miss?" Courtney called through Clara's comm. "Come in."

"Courtney?"

"I'm bored. When are you coming back?"

Clara glanced at Adelaide. "We're on our way. What are you doing?"

"Putting some pictures on Tumblr," Courtney said.

Clara's eyes widened. "No! Courtney, don't put any photos on Tumblr!"

Lundvik shrugged. "My granny used to put things on Tumblr." The ground shook, making them all stumble, but Lundvik spotted something a bit away. "There he is!" she rushed over to it, Clara and Adelaide following.

It was Henry, or what was left of him. His helmet had been opened, but he'd become a skeleton.

"Was that where we landed?" Clara asked Adelaide, pointing to where the shuttle was. There were more cracks now, making the area almost unrecognizable. "It looks so different."

"It's going down!" the cracks grew until the ship tumbled into the ravine.

"Courtney!" Clara lunged forward.

Lundvik took a deep breath. "We're going to have to take cover. We're running out of oxygen."

Clara spun to Adelaide. "Courtney."

But they were all interrupted by the Doctor appearing behind Clara, completely covered in the amniotic liquid but grinning. "Today's the day, humankind!"

|C-S|

They returned to the module, the Doctor still attempting to find a reasonable excuse to give Lundvik as to why he and Adelaide had to have a private conversation. A long private conversation, given what he'd just found. "Where's the TARDIS?" Clara asked them, not at all close to being ready to let it go.

"She's in the shuttle, isn't she?" the Doctor shrugged, moving to the computers again. "She'll turn up."

"Last time you said that, she turned up on the wrong side of the planet."

He glanced at her. "You two have never gotten on, have you?" He mouthed 'old cow', glancing at Adelaide.

Clara just sighed. "Look, we need to know where Courtney is."

"Courtney is safe." Clara raised her eyebrows. "Well, do you have her phone number?"

"No, no, no. Of course I don't have her phone number."

"Does the school?" Adelaide asked, pulling out her phone. "The secretary?"

"I can't." Clara shook her head. "The secretary hates me. She thinks I gave her a packet of TENA Lady for Secret Santa. Look, Courtney's posting stuff on Tumblr. Doesn't that know where you are?"

Lundvik shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not a historian."

"Phone, please," the Doctor said to Adelaide, the two moving to actually look at what Courtney had been posting. "Oh, she can't post that. She can't put pictures of us online." He quickly soniced her phone before one of the wall monitors, bringing up an image of Courtney.

"Yeah?"

"You can't put pictures of us online."

Clara, however, had larger concerns at the moment. "Are you okay?"

"Er, I'm fine. What's up?"

Lundvik stepped closer to the Doctor. "You said you know what the problem is."

The Doctor sighed. He'd wanted to tell Adelaide first. "Yes, yes. It's a rather big problem."

"Okay, do you care to share it with the class?"

"Well, I had a little hypothesis, which I know Adelaide shared. The seismic activity, the surface breaking up, the variable mass, the increase in gravity, the fluid..." he looked at Adelaide and was relieved to see her nodding. This was one of the reasons he'd wanted to tell her first, they hadn't had a chance to discuss anything that they'd found so far. "I scanned what's down there." He moved to the center of the room, moving a mobile console and using it to project an image of the moon as it currently was. "The moon isn't breaking apart. Well, actually, it is breaking apart, and rather quickly. We've got about an hour and a half. But that isn't the problem. It's not infested."

"What are they, then, those things?" Courtney called, still there.

"Bacteria," Adelaide said. "Small bacteria living on something that weighs about 1.3 billion tons."

The Doctor nodded. "Something that's living. Something growing."

"Growing?"

"That." The Doctor flicked the sonic to switch the image of a baby alien curled inside the moon.

"That lives under the moon?"

"No."

"What?"

"That doesn't live under the moon. That is the moon."

Lundvik shook her head. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The moon isn't breaking apart. The moon is hatching."

Clara blinked. "Huh?"

"The moon's an egg!"

"Has it...er...has it always been an egg?"

He nodded. "Yes, for a hundred million years or so. Just...just growing. Just getting ready to be born."

"Okay. So the moon has never been the moon?"

"No, no, no, no. It's never been dead. It's just taking a long time to come alive."

"Is it a chicken?" Courtney called.

The Doctor frowned. "No!"

"Cos, for a chicken to have laid an egg that big..."

"Courtney, don't spoil the moment."

"Doctor, don't scold a child."

Clara allowed herself a quick smile at Adelaide for that. "Adelaide, what is it?"

That hardened Adelaide's expression ever-so-slightly, but it was enough that Clara had to blink in a bit of shock. "It's unique and possibly the only one of its kind in the universe. Utterly beautiful."

"How do we kill it?" Lundvik asked, extremely blunted. Of course. She was a human, after all. Adelaide was all too aware of what humans would do when threatened.

Clara gasped. "Why'd you want to kill it?"

"It's a little baby!" Courtney agreed.

"Doctor, Adelaide, how do we kill it?"

"Kill the moon?" Lundvik nodded. He flicked off the hologram. "Kill the moon. Well, you have about a hundred of the best man-made nuclear weapons, if they still work. If that's what you want to do."

"Doctor, wait..."

"Will that do it?"

"A hundred nuclear bombs set off directly above a living, vulnerable creature?" Adelaide asked. "Yes. It'd never see light."

"And then what? Will the moon still break up? You said...you said we had an hour and a half?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, there'll be nothing to make it break up. There will be nothing trying to force its way out. The gravity of the little dead baby will pull all the pieces back together again. Of course, it won't be very pretty. You'd have an enormous corpse floating in the sky. You might have some very difficult conversations to have with your kids."

"I don't have any kids."

Clara stepped forward. "Stop. Right, listen. This is a...this is a life. I mean, this must be the biggest life in the universe."

"It's not even been born," Courtney added.

"It is killing people. It is destroying the Earth."

"You cannot blame a baby for kicking."

"Let me tell you something." Lundvik's tone hardened too. "You want to know what I took back from being in space? Look at the edge of the Earth. The atmosphere, that is paper thin. That is the only thing that saves us all from death. Everything else, the stars, the blackness. That's all dead. Sadly, that is the only life any of us will ever know."

"There's life here," Courtney said. "There's life just next door."

"Look, when you've grown up a bit, you'll realize that everything doesn't have to be nice. Some things are just bad. Anyway, you ran away. It's none of your business."

Adelaide closed her eyes.

"I want to come back."

Clara shook her head. "Courtney, you'll be safer where you are."

Lundvik started entering a code.

"I'm sorry," Courtney said. "I want to come back, okay? I want to help."

"Ah, there's some DVDs on the blue bookshelf," he said, glancing at Adelaide. The Time Lady had yet to open her eyes.

This was why. He'd known what would happen the moment he realized their true situation and he'd wanted to prepare her, but the humans hadn't let him. Normally she'd be fine, but it had been so dark, so restrictive, it was like Christmas. It was like Midnight. It was like Mars. Her control was a bit off, things were affecting her more than they normally did. He'd wanted to help her, but he hadn't been able to. And now there was a human talking about killing and not listening to his attempts at reason and they were surrounded by the expanse of space. "Just stick one into the TARDIS console. That'll bring you to us." So the Doctor was going to do this for Adelaide. He was going to do what Adelaide would have done. She was all that mattered, in the end.

"Right."

"And make sure you hang onto the console, otherwise the TARDIS will leave you behind."

Clara looked at Adelaide too, but by then the Time Lady had opened her eyes and stepped closer to the Doctor, taking his hand. "So what do we do?" Neither answered her. "Doctor? Adelaide? What do we do?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"We don't do anything." The Doctor tightened his grip on Adelaide's hand, meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry, Clara, we can't help you."

Clara shook her head. "Of course you can help."

"The Earth isn't our home. The moon's not our moon. Sorry."

Clara clearly didn't believe him. "Come on. Hey."

"Listen, there are moments in every civilization's history in which the whole path of that civilization is decided. The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now." The Doctor nodded to Lundvik. "Now, you've got the tools to kill it. You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity. You don't need Time Lords. Kill it. Or let it live. We can't make this decision for you."

"Yeah, well, I can't make it."

"Well, there's two of you here."

"Well, yeah. A school teacher and an astronaut."

"Who's better qualified?" Adelaide asked, though she didn't smile.

"I don't know! The President of America!"

"Oh, take something off his plate. He makes far too many decisions anyway."

"She," Lundvik corrected.

"She. Sorry. She hasn't even been into space. She hasn't been to another planet. How would she even know what to do?"

Clara stepped closer. "I am asking you for help."

"Listen, we went to dinner in Berlin in 1937, right? We didn't nip out after pudding and kill Hitler. We never killed Hitler. And you wouldn't expect us to kill Hitler. The future is no more malleable than the past." This was what Time Lords were meant to do, what Adelaide had done.

One of the few tenements of their civilization that she'd abided by. It was time he tried respecting it to. For her sake, even if it made him resoundingly uncomfortable.

"Okay, don't you do this to make some kind of point."

"Sorry." The Doctor shook his head. "Well, actually, no, I'm not sorry. It's time to take the stabilizers off your bike. It's your moon, womankind. It's your choice."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "And you're just going to stand there?"

"Absolutely not."

The TARDIS arrived and Courtney stepped out, the two Time Lords moving to it without another word.

"Doctor?" Clara frowned. "Adelaide?"

He glanced back, waving. "A teenager, an astronaut, and a schoolteacher."

Lundvik rushed over. "Hang on a minute. We can get in there, can't we? You can sort it out with that thing."

"No," Adelaide said sternly. "Some decisions are too important not to make on your own." The two closed the door, still able to hear Clara shouting after them.

"Adelaide! Doctor!"

Immediately, Adelaide hugged the Doctor tightly, taking full advantage of the privacy.

She was never going back to the moon.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor mumbled, resting his head on the top of hers. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"You did nothing wrong."

"If I hadn't told her she wasn't special, or if I'd apologized, we would never have come here."

Adelaide pulled back. "Some things happen for a reason, Doctor. If we hadn't come, and Lundvik had managed to discover something wrong with the moon, she wouldn't have had Clara or Courtney to convince her not to kill a child."

"She never would have discovered it."

She smiled. "And here I was thinking you were the one who'd adored humanity for centuries. She's a scientist, she's clever."

"Not as clever as you." The Doctor kissed her forehead. "Clever girl."

"Foolish boy."

|C-S|

A benefit of having a TARDIS was the ability to observe a location one wasn't physically present at. The Time Lords watched as Clara made a plea to the world and watched as the humans decided to kill the moon.

And they watched as Clara overrode the decision.

They landed moments after the decision was made, the Doctor rushing to the TARDIS door. "One, two, three, into the TARDIS," he pointed to each of the women, gesturing behind him.

"What's happening?" Lundvik asked, the moon making an impressively large rumble.

The Doctor grinned. "Let's go and have a look, shall we?" he ran back to the console after the three humans had run inside.

"Bloody idiots," Lundvik grumbled. "Bloody irresponsible idiots."

Adelaide paused around the console close to her. "Mind your language, please. There are children present."

Lundvik shook her head. "You should have left me there, let me die. I wanted to die up there with the universe in front of me, not being crushed to death on Earth."

"Nobody's going to die."

"Could you please let us see what's happening?"

The Time Lords brought the TARDIS down on a beach, stepping out first to the clear view of the moon in the sky. It was obvious now that the moon was falling apart, the alien visible inside spreading its wings.

Courtney gasped. "What's it doing?"

"It's feeling the sun on itself." The creature actually roared. "It's getting warm. The chick flies away and the eggshell disintegrates. Harmless."

Clara looked at the Time Lords. "Did you know?"

"You made your decision," the Doctor said instead. "Humanity made its choice."

"No, we ignored humanity."

He shrugged. "Well, there you go."

"So what happens now, then? Tell me what happens now."

The Time Lords closed their eyes, feeling history seal itself around them. "In the mid-twenty-first century, humankind starts creeping off into the stars, spreading its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe."

"Someone even eventually falls in love with a Tandonian prince and begins a whole new species," Adelaide said quietly. Adelaide Brooke was a result of today, which meant Adelaide herself was, in some twisted method of fate, if such a concept existed.

The Doctor nodded. "And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that made it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed." He grinned. "Not bad for a girl from Coal Hill School and her teacher."

Courtney gasped, pointing at the sky. "Oh my gosh! It laid a new egg. It's beautiful." A brand new moon had replaced the old one, looking identical except lacking all the craters. "It's beautiful."

"That's what we call a new moon."

Courtney glanced at Lundvik, who had tears in her eyes. "You can be the first woman on that."

"I think that somebody deserves a thank you," the Doctor mumbled.

"Yeah, probably." Lundvik nodded, turning to Clara. "Thank you. Thank you for stopping me. Thank you for giving me the moon back."

The Doctor examined the area around them. "Okay, Captain. Well, you've got a whole new space program to get together. NASA is...er...it's that way." He pointed. "About two and a half thousand miles." He looked at Courtney. "You still got your vortex manipulators? We'll give you a run home."

|C-S|

Adelaide was busying herself with organizing a set of books, the Doctor with something at the console, when Courtney and Clara returned from changing back into their original clothes. "Not that it's any of our business, but we think you did the right thing," the Doctor called.

"Yeah, you're right." Clara's tone was harsh, which had Adelaide glance at her. "It's none of your business. Come on, Courtney, off you go. Double Geography."

"Can we do it again?"

"Go," Clara waved her towards the door. "Go, go. Chop chop." Courtney left the TARDIS and, though the Doctor moved to set it flying, Clara stopped it. "Tell me what you knew."

"Nothing," the Doctor said quickly. "We told you, we've got grey areas."

"Yeah. I noticed. Tell me what you knew or else I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate."

Adelaide stepped up to the TARDIS. "We knew that eggs are not bombs and that they usually don't destroy their nests."

"Essentially, what we knew was that you would always make the best choice. We had faith that you would always make the right choice."

But Clara frowned. "Honestly, do you have music playing in your head when you say rubbish like that?"

"It wasn't our decision to make. We told you."

"Well, why did you do it? Was it for Courtney, was that it?"

"Well, she really is something special now, isn't she?" the Doctor shrugged. "First woman on the moon, saved the Earth from itself, and, rather bizarrely, she becomes the President of the United States. She met this bloke called Blinovitch..."

"Do you know what?" Clara cut him off, shouting. "Shut up! I am so sick of listening to you!"

"We didn't do it for Courtney," Adelaide said. "We didn't know what was going to happen. We wouldn't lie about this."

Clara had started crying by then. "I don't know. I don't know! If you didn't do it for her, I mean. Do you know what? It was...it was cheap, it was pathetic." She pointed at them. "No, no, no. it was patronizing. That was you patting us on the back saying, 'you're big enough to go to the shops by yourself now. Go on, toddle along!'"

"No, that was us allowing you to make an informed choice about your own future. That was us respecting you."

Clara frowned. "Oh my God, really? Was it? Yeah, well, respected is not how I feel." The Doctor blinked. "I nearly didn't press that button. I nearly got it wrong. That was you two, my friends, making me scared. Making me feel like a bloody idiot."

"Language," he mumbled.

"Oh, don't you ever tell me to mind my language. Don't you ever tell me to take the stabilizers off my bike. And don't you dare lump me in with the rest of all the little humans that you both think are so tiny and silly and predictable. You walk our Earth, you breathe our air. You make us your friend, and that is your moon too. And you can damn well help us when we need it."

"We were helping."

"What, by clearing off?"

Adelaide nodded. "Yes." It was how she'd helped, how she'd always done it if she landed in the middle of a crisis. Provide information and then leave the planet to their own devices. She'd never wanted anyone in her debt. She'd never wanted to share in anyone's air or moon.

"Yeah, well, clear off! Go on. You can clear off. Get back in your lonely...your lonely bloody TARDIS and you don't come back!" She turned and made for the doors.

"Clara..."

"You go away! Okay? You go a long way away!" she slammed the TARDIS doors her, leaving the Time Lords just standing there.

There was a reason Time Lords as a whole only used the non-interference policy. That they never did like the Doctor did and interacted closely with a species. That they never reached the point where making a choice like this for someone else was even a possibility.

Adelaide should have thought of that. She was the one with the most experience with that, the one who should have warned the Doctor.

But she'd never gotten this close with any species besides the Silurian. She hadn't known what would happen.

They'd made a mistake.

Because she knew that the Doctor would never let her just blame herself for this situation. And she was finally willing to let him.

"I'm sorry," she told him, making him turn slowly. "I know you behaved like this for my sake."

"It was the right thing to do."

"That doesn't make it kind." Adelaide stepped closer to him. "You always were the kind one." It was a key difference between them, a balance that they needed to maintain. Adelaide was the rational, contained, and theorizing one. The Doctor was the kind one. The emotional one. The unpredicable one.

The one who made friends and stayed behind to help them.

 **A/N: I always thought this episode was a bit out of character for the Doctor, suddenly deciding not to interfere, but Adelaide, thankfully, helped balance that. Hopefully they can maintain this balance for a bit longer ;)**


	15. Professors

**Professors**

The Doctor was the first one out of the TARDIS, squeezing into the train baggage compartment they'd landed in. He kept the door open for Clara and Adelaide, the human emerging first. They'd all dressed to fit the theme, him into a suit, Clara a black flapper dress, and Adelaide a dark green one. The Doctor was fairly certain Adelaide's was what she'd worn as Caroline when they'd met Agatha Christie, but he hadn't wanted to mention it in case she'd forgotten - it had been a time before the Library.

Either way, he thought she looked beautiful. Of course, honestly, he always did.

"Your train awaits, my lady," he said, gesturing around them to Clara.

"Wonderful." Clara clearly wasn't impressed, though neither Time Lord blamed her.

"The baggage car." The Doctor continued through the train. "The real wonderful is through here." He led them into a lounge car, filled with well-dressed people, plush chairs, and a bar at one end. "There were many trains to take the name Orient Express, but only one in space." He gestured at the window.

"Of course it is."

"Almost completely faithful recreation of the original Orient Express," Adelaide explained.

The Doctor nodded. "Except slightly bigger. And in space."

"And the rails are actually hyperspace ribbons."

"But in every other respect, identical. Painstaking attention to detail..." a man with an eyepatch pushed past him. "Most of the time." He glanced at Clara, who was smiling sadly. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"The smile." He moved closer to Adelaide, taking her hand briefly.

"Yeah," Clara nodded, "I'm smiling."

"It's the sad smile. It's a smile but you're sad. It's confusing. It's like two emotions at once. It's like your malfunctioning."

"Sorry?"

"It's like you're lying. You shouldn't lie. Adelaide..."

"Doctor," Adelaide said, "not now."

He nodded. "I just thought this would be a good one to..." he trailed off, looking away.

Though the Time Lords – even Adelaide, who'd never had a companion before – didn't want her to leave, Clara had made her opinion clear. Clara wanted to stop and the Time Lords knew that they had to let her.

"To end it," Clara finished for him. "Yeah. It is. It's a good choice. A good one to end on."

"Yeah?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Shall we?" the Doctor took champagne flutes off a nearby tray, handing one to Clara and offering her his arm, knowing that Adelaide wouldn't want that much contact in such a public space. She had her limits and he would respect them.

"Mmm hmm..."

The group wandered further into the car, pausing when a speaker chimed. "Ladies and gentlemen. If you would be good enough to look from the windows on the right of the train, you'll be able to see the soaring majesty of the Magellan black hole."

The entire train turned to look out the window. "Oh, I remember when this was all planets as far as the eye could see," the Doctor mumbled. "All gone now. Gobbled up by that beast." He glanced at Clara. "And there's that smile again. I don't even know how you do that."

"I really thought I hated you, you know?" Clara said, speaking quiet enough that they barely missed it.

"Well, thank God you kept that to yourself," the Doctor scoffed. "Adelaide might have slapped you."

"Everyone's entitled to their opinions."

The Doctor shrugged. "There was this planet, Obsidian. You would have hated it, Adelaide, the planet of perpetual darkness."

"I did," Clara continued, nodding. "I did hate you, both of you. In fact, I hated you for weeks."

"Good, fine. Well, I'm glad that we cleared that up." The Doctor stepped a bit closer to Adelaide. "There was also a planet that was made completely of shrubs..."

"I went to a concert once. Can't remember who it was. But do you know what the singer said?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Frankly, that would be an absolutely astonishing guess if I did know."

"She said, 'hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on someone that you don't like'."

"Were people really confused? Cos I'm confused. Did everybody leave?"

"Manners," Adelaide mumbled.

"Look, what I'm trying to say is...I don't hate you. I could never hate you. But I can't do this anymore. Not the way you do it."

"Can I talk about the planets now?"

Clara sighed, glancing at Adelaide for comradery despite herself. "Yes. Go."

"Thedion Four. Constant acid rain."

Adelaide frowned. "I believe I had a picnic there once. Needed to wear a gas mask. Odd day."

"Who were you having a picnic with?"

"The Corsair."

"You and the Corsair had a picnic together on Thedion Four?"

"That's a lie," a woman said, making them all turn. She looked rather ill.

"I'm sorry?" Clara said.

"That's a lie, what you said. Thedion Four was destroyed thousands of years ago, so you couldn't have been there."

One of the guards hurried over. "Miss Pitt, are you sure you wouldn't rather rest in your room?"

"They're liars." Miss Pitt pointed at both of them.

"Perhaps you'd allow Mr. Carlyle here to escort you back." He gestured to another guard who'd stepped up.

"It'll be all right, miss. Just come with me." He escorted Miss Pitt away, offering her his arm.

The first guard, dressed slightly more decadently than the other, turned to the trio with a sigh. "Sorry about that. I suppose it's understandable in the circumstances. I don't believe we've been introduced. Captain Quell." He held out a hand.

"I'm Clara," Clara said, shaking his hand. "This is Adelaide and the Doctor."

"Ah," Quell nodded, "another one."

"Sorry? Another what?"

"Well, we've got doctors and professors coming out of our ears on this trip. So, what are you a doctor of?"

The Doctor glanced at Adelaide. "Now, there's a question that's never asked often enough. Let's say...intestinal parasites."

Quell frowned at him. "I'm beginning to think Miss Pitt was right about you." He started to walk off.

"What's wrong with her?" Clara called after him. "Did something happen?"

Quell's frown deepened. "You mean you really don't know?"

|C-S|

The group, after coming up with any excuse they could, managed to get into a smaller corridor in order to discuss the issue. The Doctor had also gotten them sleeping compartments, which had required the Time Lords to pose as husband and wife in order to get a larger one for them to share. They weren't planning on doing much sleeping, but it would be better for them to talk in a larger compartment than a smaller one.

"There's a body and there's a mummy," Clara said. "I mean, can you not just get on a train? Did a wizard put a curse on you two about mini-breaks?"

"It might be nothing," the Doctor shrugged. "Old ladies die all the time. It's practically their job description."

Clara crossed her arms. "And the monster?"

"Which was seen by no one except her," Adelaide said, "which leads to the likely conclusion it wasn't there. A dying brain, lack of oxygen, hallucinations."

The Doctor nodded. "Anyway, people do just die sometimes. She was over a hundred years old."

"Says the two thousand-year-olds."

"Clara, you actually sound as if you want this to be a thing. Do you?"

"No," Clara spoke quickly, "no, look, fine. You know, if you two think that there is nothing to worry about, then that is fine by me."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Ah, yes, I'm sure."

The Doctor held up his champagne flute. "To our last hurrah."

"Our last, yeah." But Clara didn't raise her flute. "I mean, it's not like I'm never going to see you again."

He frowned. "Isn't it?"

"Is it?"

"We thought that's what you wanted."

"No, what I mean...you're going to come round for dinner or something, aren't you? Do you...do you do that? Do you come round to people's houses for dinner?"

Adelaide had to look at the Doctor for that answer. She knew how he'd treated previous companions, but he was still the one with experiences in that sort of thing. She'd never had someone where doing that was an option.

"Of course," the Doctor nodded. "Why wouldn't we do that?"

Clara shrugged. "I don't know. I thought you might find it boring."

It was his turn to look at Adelaide. "Is it boring?"

"No," Clara said quickly, before Adelaide could shrug. She clinked their flutes. "To the last hurrah."

"The last hurrah."

|C-S|

The Time Lords sat side by side, Adelaide leaning against his shoulder. As expected, neither was remotely tired, so there was no point to even bother lying down. They were only silent for a minute before the Doctor started talking. "It's nothing. Nothing. Definitely. Sure. Ninety-nine percent sure."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Really? Ninety-nine percent? Quite high."

He shrugged. "Okay, okay. Seventy-five."

"Lowering it twenty-four percent?"

"What would you make the number?"

"Zero."

The Doctor pulled away slightly to look at her better. "Zero?"

"I have a theory."

"A theory?"

"Have you ever heard of the Foretold?"

The Doctor grinned. "Investigation?"

Adelaide stood, pulling the Doctor up. He managed to steal a kiss before pulling on his jacket, grinning. "Investigation."

They left the sleeper cart together and paused outside Clara's door, but they didn't speak before they continued on. Clara hadn't wanted to be interrupted, and they would respect that.

The Doctor did manage to kiss Adelaide again before they entered engineering. Quell, before they'd left him earlier, had mentioned casually that some of Mrs. Pitt's belongings had been brought there. The chair was easy to spot, despite being covered in plastic wrapping. The Doctor removed it, scanning the chair with the sonic.

"Beautiful bit of kit, isn't it?" a man said, making them both jump. He was still standing in the shadows, holding something that looked suspiciously like a weapon, though they were fairly certain it was the engineer. "The Excelsior Life Extender. It's like driving around in a portable hospital."

"Yes, well," the Doctor shrugged, "it didn't do Mrs. Pitt much good, did it?"

"Got me there, sir. Certainly got me there. Maybe it malfunctioned."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "The records show that the machine did everything it could to keep her alive."

The engineer nodded. "Yeah. And almost drained the battery doing it."

"What do you know?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, I know that when I find two people fiddling with a chair that someone died in, it's best to play my cards close to my chest."

"Really? Well, I know that when I find a man loitering near a chair that someone died in, I do just the same."

The man smirked. "Perkins. Chief Engineer."

"The Doctor. Nosey Parker." He pointed at her. "Adelaide. Chief Theory-maker."

Perkins laughed. "Pleased to meet you both." He shook both of their hands. "Course, there's a rumor that someone or something else might be responsible."

|C-S|

Once they'd reached the lounge, the Time Lords walked up to a man reading a book. Adelaide hadn't wanted to interrupt him, but the Doctor had insisted that, since Perkins had told them to talk to this man, they should. "What's the most interesting thing about the Foretold?" the Doctor asked Moorhouse.

"I'm terribly sorry, I don't believe we've met," he said, frowning at them.

"You know, the Foretold. Mythical mummy. Legend has it that if you see it, you're a dead man."

Moorhouse nodded. "Yes, I know what it is. You see, I happen to be..."

"Emil Moorhouse, professor of alien mythology," the Doctor finished for him. "I'm the Doctor, this is Adelaide. Pleased to meet you." He shook the man's hand.

Adelaide took a seat opposite Moorhouse, the Doctor leaning against her seat beside her. "Most interesting thing about the Foretold?"

"Er...well...it would have to be the time limit given before it kills you. I can't think of another myth where it's so specific. How does it go? Er...'the number of evil twice over. They that bear the Foretold's stare have sixty-six seconds to live'."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no. Nice try. Very atmospheric. But that's not it. Try again."

"A cynical man might say that you were trying to pump me for information."

Adelaide lifted an eyebrow. She may have been a biologist, but the Doctor was such a fan of myths and stories that it seemed she'd absorbed some knowledge after spending such a long time with him. She'd recognized the technical details of the Foretold myth, but the Doctor knew the specifics. "The myth of the Foretold first appeared over five thousand years ago," the Doctor said. "In some stories, there is a riddle or secret word that is supposed to make it stop. Some characters try to bargain with it, offer riches, confess sons. All to no avail." As he spoke, he pulled out a silver cigarette case and offered Moorhouse a jelly baby, something that made Adelaide's eyebrow lift more.

"Well," Moorhouse laughed, "you certainly know a little mythology."

The Doctor shrugged. "I know a lot. One of the only subjects I know more about than Adelaide." He put an arm around her shoulders. "Always found them interesting. Because, from time to time, it turns out to be true."

Moorhouse smiled. "But that's the great appeal, isn't it? Earth legends are such dry, dusty affairs, and always fiction. But up here, in the stars, anything's possible. That's why I chose this field, to be honest. Hoping one day I might meet a real monster."

"Isn't that everyone's dream?" the Doctor said. "But you still haven't answered her riddle. What's the most interesting thing about the Foretold?"

Moorhouse sat back. "Well, you can't run from it, that's for sure. There are accounts of people trying, but it never works. No matter how far you run, it's always right there behind you."

"Nope. Even colder."

"Alright, I give up, you tell me."

"Mrs. Pitt, the old woman who died," Adelaide said.

"She died of old age. Nothing supernatural."

"No, that's the answer."

Moorhouse frowned. "Her death?"

"No. The fact that you were here to witness it." The Doctor glanced behind them, hearing a commotion. "Excuse us, Professor," Adelaide said, standing to follow the Doctor over to Quell, who was addressing a few crew.

"I think we need to talk," the Doctor told him, both Time Lords having heard the very basics that a chef had died.

"This matter does not concern the passengers."

"We're not passengers." He handed the man the psychic paper. "We're your worst nightmare."

Quell's eyes widened. "Mystery shoppers? Oh, great."

The Doctor frowned, glancing at the paper. "Really? That's your worst?" He shrugged. "Okay, we're mystery shoppers. We could do with an extra pillow and I'm very disappointed with your breakfast bar...and all of the dying."

|C-S|

Quell poured two drinks, giving one to the Doctor. Despite the Time Lord showing a slight proclivity for alcohol in this regeneration, especially when compared to the last one, Adelaide had never felt the same inkling. He eyed them as the Doctor drank his quickly. "This is not exactly within your job description."

"Come on, Captain," the Doctor scoffed. "Where would we all be if we all followed our job descriptions, hmm? Good question. Glad you asked. In your case, you'd be doing something instead of climbing inside a bottle."

"I have followed the procedure for accidental death to the letter!"

The Doctor laughed. "Yes, I'm sure you have. And I'm sure you do just enough of your job to avoid complaints."

Quell frowned. "You don't know anything about me."

"Wounded in battle, honorable discharge," Adelaide said, making Quell look at her in shock. "Just a guess."

The Doctor smirked, picking up Adelaide's observations. "I think you've had the fight knocked out of you. You expected this to be a cushy desk job where you could put your head down until retirement. Well, I'm sorry. As of today, that dream is over."

"There is no evidence of any attack or other parties..."

"Yes, let's just sit around and wait for the evidence while the bodies pile up. Or here's a crazy thought...we could do something to stop it." The Doctor glanced at Adelaide. "Why are we even talking to you?" He held the door to Quell's office open for her, though Adelaide hadn't even exited before she stopped so that she didn't run into Perkins, who was waiting for them.

"Er...passenger manifest," Perkins was holding up a collection of papers, "plan of the train and a list of stops for the past six months."

"Quick work, Perkins," the Doctor said. "Maybe too quick."

"Yes, sir. I'm obviously the mummy. Or perhaps I was already looking into this."

|C-S|

Locked in a room with a sarcophagus and a woman whose grandmother just died was not how Clara had planned to spend her evening, but here she was. Clara knew that Adelaide didn't have her cell phone, as the woman hadn't thought it necessary to bring it to what they'd intended to be a dinner - and it was rude to have your phone at the table - so she had no way to contact them until they contacted her first. So now she, and Maisie, were just waiting, sitting on one of the boxes in the room.

"This Doctor and Adelaide," Maisie started. "They're your what, exactly?"

"They're not my anything."

"Oh, you mean you're just friends."

Clara nodded. "Yeah, of course we're just friends." But then she frowned. "Oh. Well, not even friends, not anymore."

"Well, that clearly isn't true."

She sighed. "It's true. It is. It's very true."

Maisie lifted her eyebrows. "You do all seem to be here together."

"Seriously? We're stuck in this carriage, probably all night, and all we can talk about is a couple?"

"A couple?"

Clara winced. "Not a couple, not really...it's difficult to say with them. But, look, we...we all knocked about together, we traveled and now we're stopping. This is a...I don't know, goodbye to the good times?"

"Were the good times all like this?"

Clara laughed. Sometimes, Adelaide seemed annoyed at how often the Doctor managed to get into difficult situations, but Clara knew that Adelaide enjoyed them. The Time Lady just wouldn't admit it, which just led the Doctor to attempt to get them into more traps to try and force her to admit it. "Yeah. Now that you mention it."

|C-S|

Adelaide stood behind the Doctor as they watched the security footage of Mrs. Pitt's death. Moorhouse had joined them, standing behind the Time Lords with Perkins. They watched as the woman sat there before suddenly becoming panicked, screaming and pointing at something that wasn't there, before she died as, promptly, sixty-six seconds passed.

"Sixty-six seconds," the Doctor mumbled. "It fits the myth. Did you see the lights flicker?"

Moorhouse nodded. "Mmm."

"Yeah, the lights went in the kitchen as well just before the chef saw it," Perkins said, bringing up the other attack. It progressed in the same way as the first.

"In all of the accounts, conventional weapons have no effect on the Foretold. It's immortal, unstoppable, unkillable."

Perkins frowned at Moorhouse. "Can we get a new expert?"

|C-S|

Maisie shook her head as Clara finished talking. "Oh, he was wrong."

"Yes. Yes. Yes, he was. And so was she."

"And...and high-handed and...and thoughtless and...and...and arrogant beyond belief."

Clara nodded. "Exactly."

"And you got on a train with him."

"I was saying goodbye. You can't end it on a slammed door. Adelaide wouldn't like that." Though, as Clara said it, she felt a twinge. She knew what Adelaide had done to her people. She knew that Adelaide was perfectly capable of slamming a door and never looking back.

That had always confused her about Adelaide. Clara could read the Doctor, she could understand him, in a way. But Adelaide...Adelaide was different.

She liked Adelaide, of course she did, and she knew that Adelaide liked her. Sometimes, she liked the fact that she was likely the first human Adelaide had ever actually gotten close to. But then she'd remember why that was and she'd wonder if she'd ever really be able to grasp the Time Lady.

Maisie shook her head. "Yes, you can. Anyone can do it. People do it all the time. Except, of course, when they can't." She sighed. "Life would be so much simpler if you liked the right people. People you're supposed to like. But then, I guess there'd be no fairy tales."

Clara said nothing.

The Doctor was a fairy tale hero, swooping down to save the day. But the more she thought about it...that had never been Adelaide's choice.

Clara had only ever traveled with the Time Lords together, but she couldn't honestly remember a time when Adelaide had headed a decision to save someone or stop something bad. She'd even made it clear multiple times that she disliked interfering...until the Doctor was in danger.

Then, it seemed as though Adelaide would stop time itself to save him.

|C-S|

The Time Lords were still working, both of their human assistants asleep around them, when the train dinged and the blinds rose, signaling the arrival of the morning on the train. Adelaide had made the Doctor promise not to contact Clara at least until then. She leaned back, taking the nearby intercom phone and, after sonicing it, disconnected it from the cord in order to call their companion.

It was odd, to know that Clara wanted to leave. Even though Amy and Rory had, technically, been Adelaide's first companion, they'd always felt more like the Doctor's. When she'd met them, she'd still been hanging on as a guest, still asserting her place in the Doctor's travels. She knew that the humans saw them both as their alien traveling companions, but Adelaide had never been able to extend the same favor to them.

Perhaps it was based in Amy's initial attempt to kiss the Doctor on her wedding day and then continually harboring an interest in the alien.

Adelaide tried to pretend she wasn't so prone to jealousy.

But Clara had been found when the Time Lords were secure as a pair, when Adelaide traveling in the TARDIS wasn't a question. Sure, Adelaide had recently regenerated, but they'd settled, in a way. There'd been no chance that Adelaide would walk out of the TARDIS, not after everything they'd been through.

And she and Clara had worked well together. Clara hadn't been opposed to being seen as her assistant, which was something she'd never dream of calling Amy.

Now, Clara wanted to leave. Adelaide knew she had to let the human make her own choices, but Adelaide was also fairly certain that this entire situation had to do with a Mr. Pink.

After all, Clara herself didn't seem all that ready to leave the Time Lords. It was like she had to keep correcting herself, reminding herself that she really did want to leave.

Adelaide wasn't a fan of someone making a choice for someone else.

Especially someone who presumed as much as Danny Pink.

The Doctor looked up once Adelaide had connected to Clara. "Hello, Clara? We've learned of another Mummy murder..."

"Adelaide, I'm in trouble."

She sat up, meeting the Doctor's eyes. "What's happened?"

"I'm trapped!"

"Where are you?" The Doctor leaped up, dashing out of the room with Adelaide only a few steps behind.

The Time Lord followed the signal using his sonic through the train, banging on the door of a storage room. "Clara! Is that you?"

"Yes," Clara called from inside. "Yes, hello. Can you hear us?"

The Doctor tried to sonic the door open, but he leaped back when the computer shocked him. "Ow! Computer, can you open the door, please?"

"Call me Gus. I'm afraid this door can only be opened by executive order."

"Oh, forget it." The Doctor tried again, but the sonic stopped with a beep. "Oh, now the stupid sonic..." he moved aside for Adelaide to try her's, but it stopped in the same manner.

"What?"

"Sonics aren't working," Adelaide called.

"What? What do you mean, they're not working? Why?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Some sort of a suppression field, I would guess. And it has to be a guess because, as I say, the stupid sonics aren't working." He frowned at the door. "What are you even doing in there?"

"Well, I was looking for you two, Mr. and Ms. Nothing-To-Worry-About."

"What, were we supposed to wake you up? Drag you out of bed because we had a hunch? Adelaide's made it quite clear that it's rude, especially since we thought you didn't want to do this anymore."

Clara sighed. "Look, look, please, can we just not do this now? I think we might not be alone in here." She lowered her voice. "There's a sarcophagus."

The Doctor frowned. "Is it in there?"

"I think we might just be about to find out. Turns out the sonics are working. Just not on the door we need."

Adelaide glanced up when the lights flickered. "It's coming."

"There's..." Clara paused. "It's okay, it's okay. It's...er...it's full of bubble wrap."

"But the lights..."

"Doctor, Adelaide, move away from the door," Quell called from behind them, making them both turn to find he'd brought two weaponized guards with him.

"Our friend's inside."

"Then they're in trouble, too. I spoke to Head Office. There is no mystery shopper. You're not even on the passenger list."

Adelaide sighed. This was a reason she didn't tend to break into things. TARDISes did have the ability to arrange their pilot's presence on something as simple as a passenger list, but the Doctor didn't seem to know how to use that feature.

Granted, Adelaide hadn't actually done it herself.

She'd never been the sort to frequent parties or trains without an actual invitation.

"Clara, we're going to have to call you back."

"Come on," Quell ordered.

The guards handcuffed the Time Lords. "You know," the Doctor said, "we're going to have to mark you down for this."

"You're not mystery shoppers." Quell started to lead the way down the corridor. "For all I know, you're the ones behind the killings."

"Oh, come on, Captain," the Doctor scoffed. "How many people have to die before you stop looking the other way?"

There were gunshots, which sent Quell off in that direction, bringing the Time Lords and guards with him. One of the guards was shooting at something only he could see in the lounge car, ordering people to keep away.

"What do you think you're doing, man?" Quell said, trying to get closer, but he could reach the guard.

"Please, please! Stop! No!" His head fell back and the guard collapsed, clearly dead.

"Get up, man," Quell ordered. "That's an order!" Another passenger hurried over to take the guard's pulse, but he shook his head. Moorhouse handed Quell the guard's gun, but the man passed it off before turning to the Time Lords. "It turns out it's three. The amount of people that had to die before I stopped looking the other way."

The guards released the Time Lords. "Thank you."

"Same as the others?" Perkins asked, appearing at the Doctor's shoulder as other guards carried the dead man away.

The Doctor glanced at Adelaide before stepping forward to address the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, could I have a moment of your time, please?" He did have to admit, being polite did get people to listen to you. He could see why Adelaide always tried to make him do it. "There's a monster on this train that can only be seen by those about to die. If you do see it, you will have exactly sixty-six seconds left in which to live. But that isn't even the strangest thing. Do you know what is? You. The passengers. Experts in alien biology, mythology, physics. If I was putting together a team to analyze this thing, I'd probably just pick Adelaide because she's an expert in everything, but if she wasn't available I'd pick you. And we" he gestured between himself and Adelaide "think somebody has. Someone of immense power and influence has orchestrated this whole trip. Someone who I have no doubt is listening to us right now." He looked up. "So, are you going to step out from behind the curtain and give us our orders?"

The room was silent. "The engines," Perkins said. "They've stopped."

 **A/N: This episode is certainly an interesting one for the pair of them. The Doctor still seems to be acting particularly Adelaide-esque...**


	16. Doctors

**Doctors**

The room flickered, quickly replaced with a lab that honestly impressed Adelaide. It reminded her of her own TARDIS...which, speaking of, she really did need to look for. Didn't really want it just sitting somewhere where any old human or alien could just waltz in...though it was most definitely well locked and guarded. "And the façade drops because what use are scientists without a lab?"

A large number of the people vanished too. "Teleporter?" Perkins asked.

"Hard light holograms," Adelaide said. "They were never actually here. Fake passengers to make up the numbers."

One of the monitors switched from the train's logo to a monocle. "Good morning, everyone," the voice from before, Gus, said. "Around the room, you will find a variety of scientific equipment. Your goal is to ascertain the Foretold's true nature, probe for weaknesses with a view to capture, after which we will reverse engineer its abilities. Isn't this exciting?"

"You said capture, implying that you can't control this thing. And yet somehow you got it on board. How?"

"There is an artifact, an ancient scroll. I have highlighted it for your convenience. For reasons currently unknown, the Foretold appears in the vicinity of this artifact."

At the end of the room, a light turned on that illuminated what looked like an ancient scroll. "And kills at regular intervals," the Doctor commented.

"Then just maybe we should throw this thing out in the airlock," Quell said, moving to grab it.

"No!" the Doctor shouted. "No! No!"

But Quell couldn't even get close, getting an electric shock. Perkins shrugged. "Looks like they've thought of that."

"What if we say no?" Moorhouse asked. "Down tools. Refuse to work."

"That is your choice, of course," Gus said. "But it would be very upsetting were you all to die at the hands of the Foretold."

"So hurry up, before it kills you," Perkins supplied.

"Any hints on the species?" there were methods to determine the Foretold's appearance despite only one person being able to see it for sixty-six seconds, but it would always be helpful to have a hint.

They didn't get a chance. The lights flickered. "Perkins," Adelaide said, watching each of the gathered people, "start the clock."

"Approximately one point eight meters tall," Moorhouse started to say, staring at where the mummy must be. "Actually, seeing it in the flesh isn't nearly as rewarding as I thought it might be."

"Details, Moorhouse, please."

Moorhouse nodded. "Yes. Yes, of course, of course. Uh...well, it just looks like...er...a man in bandages. I..."

"What kind of bandages?" the Doctor asked. "Old? New?"

"Old."

"Whole? Ragged?"

"Ragged. Falling off in places. I don't know what you want me to tell you."

"Listen to me! You can see this thing. We can't. Tell us what you can see. Even the smallest detail might help save the next one."

His eyes widened. "The next one? You mean you can't save me?"

The Doctor frowned. "Well, that is implied, isn't it? Yes, this is probably the end for you. But make it count. Details, please."

"Er...flesh. Some of it is visible."

"Thirty seconds," Perkins called.

"Er...leathery. Ancient looking. Peat bog preserved."

The Doctor nodded. "Keep talking. Don't waste this chance." The Time Lord followed the man as he moved backward, though Adelaide stayed where she'd been, trying to piece together even the most basic theory about what the Foretold was based on all the information that they had. It was very annoying to have to rely on other people's descriptions. They would never be of a high enough quality.

"I want to bargain for my life!"

"What?"

"Well, it says, some of the myths say if you...if you find the right word, if you make the right offer, then it lets you go."

"This is not a myth," the Doctor reminded him. "This is real. Forget your superstitions. Tell us what you can see."

Moorhouse shook his head. "This is my life, my death. I'm going to fight for it how I want. Er...I give you..."

"Ten seconds."

"My soul! I confess all sins. I give you all my worldly goods. Only...please, please, please," he started to swat the air, trying to push something away. "No!" He crumbled to the ground.

"Zero," Perkins mumbled.

"We apologize for any distress you may have just experienced," Gus said. "Grief counseling is available on request. On the bright side, I'm sure you've all collected a lot of data. Well done, everyone!"

"It's recording every death."

Adelaide nodded. "That's why we're here. To study our own demise." She couldn't help but grin. "Let's get to work." The Doctor started to hand out lab coats to the scientists, which Adelaide took with a slight eagerness. She'd forgotten how much she liked lab coats after so long without them.

After a few minutes of examining the equipment they had access to, she took out the phone she'd taken from the wall earlier, dialing their still trapped companion. "Clara."

"Okay. So, first things first. The sarcophagus is actually a secure stasis unit."

"Yes, I meant to tell you that that's where they want the Foretold to be placed if we do manage to capture it."

Clara sighed. "Well, that would have been good to know."

"We got a bit caught up. Forgot to call. Apologies. Anything else?"

"Please terminate your call and return to work," Gus ordered.

"We have some paperwork," Clara continued. "Passenger manifests from other ships. Maisie recognized a couple of the names. These are missing ships."

Adelaide met the Doctor's eyes. "We're not the first."

"No."

"Please terminate your call and return to work."

"I've got some progress reports. The Gloriana spent three days getting picked off by the Foretold. All died. Performance marked as poor. The Valiant Heart. Forty-two crew, four died. Performance, promising."

"Please terminate the call and return to work."

"I think you should do as it says," Quell said quietly, making Adelaide turn to the window.

The catering staff was floating outside, dead.

Adelaide set her expression. "Clara, stay safe." She hung up.

"I'm sorry," Gus said, not sounding sorry. "I know that must have been distressing for you. But if you are disobedient again, I will decompress another area containing less valuable passengers."

The Doctor frowned. "Less valuable passengers? How does it choose?"

"Well," Perkins shrugged, "I'm assuming qualifications."

"No, no, no. Not the computer, the Foretold. How does it choose who to kill?"

Adelaide nodded. "We assumed it was random, but it likely isn't." She turned to the scientists. "Full histories on all the victims. Medical, social, personal."

"Well done," Quell said.

The Doctor pointed up. "I'm the only one who compliments her."

"Not the time, Doctor."

|C-S|

Once they'd gathered all the records, Adelaide, the Doctor, Perkins, and Quell gathered around one of the monitors. "Doesn't seem to be any pattern," Perkins said. "Their travel history, interests, health. It's all over the shop. Health?"

"Health? Are you sure? Mrs. Pitt, the first victim. She was over a hundred years old. The frailest passenger on board."

"But the next to go, the chef, was young and fit. It's random."

"The chef was ill," Quell said.

"What?"

"A rare blood disorder. Not contagious, but we kept it quiet."

The Doctor nodded. "Because he worked with food. The next one, the guard?"

"He wasn't ill as such, but he did have synthetic lungs implanted last year."

"Professor Moorhouse," Perkins pointed at something on the screen. "It seems he was physically fine but suffering from...here we are. Regular panic attacks after a car crash last year."

"It's picking off the weakest first. Sensing the illness somehow. The fake organs, even psychological issues." The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "But this is good news, because it means we can work out who is next. We need the medical records of everybody who is still on board. If anyone's had as much as a cold, we need to know about it."

Perkins nodded, getting to work, but Quell glanced at the Time Lords. "You really think it can sense psychological issues?"

"Current evidence points to that conclusion. Why?"

"When you said I'd lost the stomach for a fight, I wasn't wounded in battle as such, but...my unit was bombed. I was the sole survivor. Not a scratch on me. But post-traumatic stress. Nightmares. Still can't sleep without pills."

The Doctor nodded. "Which means that you are probably next. Which is good to know."

Quell frowned. "Well, not for me."

"Well, of course not for you, because you're going to die."

Adelaide shrugged. "But from a research perspective..."

Quell shook his head at them. "You know, it's a good thing that you're not a doctor because both of your bedside manners leaves..."

The lights flickered. "Well, there goes our head start. Perkins, start the clock." They followed Quell's gaze as it landed on something. "What can you see?"

"Almost feels out of focus." Quell squinted. "Gives me a headache just looking at it." He started to move back, drawing his weapon.

"No, no, no, no," the Doctor said. "That didn't work before."

"What kind of soldier would I be, dying with bullets in my gun?" He fired, shooting until his gun was empty.

"Fifty seconds."

"Someone shut that man up! For the record, it didn't even flinch."

"Where is it now?" Adelaide asked.

"Approximately twenty feet in front of me and closing."

"Forty seconds."

The Doctor moved to the area Quell had indicated. "Am I close?"

Quell gasped, trying to move away quicker. "It's passing right through you, like a ghost."

Perkins scanned the area. "It's not a hologram."

"If you move, will it follow?"

"Do you want me to move? Because I can certainly still do that."

Adelaide nodded. "Keep looking at it, but move back quickly."

Quell did so, turning, but he just jumped back. "It's teleported away. It's behind me."

"Twenty seconds."

Quell swallowed. "I think this is it. Still, suppose it's not a bad way to go. Blood pumping, enemy at the gates and all that. And thank you, Doctor, Adelaide, for waking me up. It's reaching for me." His head, like the others, moved back. "Hands on my head."

"Zero." As Perkins said it, Quell fell to the ground.

The Doctor glanced over as Perkins's scanner beeped. "Teleporter. That means tech. Then sixty-six seconds to do what?"

Adelaide frowned. "Sixty-six seconds is very specific. Possibly organic, but likely too specific. More tech? A countdown clock? Something charging?"

Perkins looked between them. "A man just died in front of us. Can we not just have a moment?"

"No. No, no, no," the Doctor shook his head. "We can't do that. We can't mourn. People with guns to their heads, they cannot mourn. We don't have time to mourn." He turned to the crowd of scientists. "Everybody, what takes sixty-six seconds to charge up or to change state? Anybody? Are we surrounded by idiots?" Adelaide didn't even comment, but he looked at her anyways. "If only I could see this thing."

"Don't even joke about that," Perkins said.

"I'm not joking about it. One minute with me or Adelaide and this thing, it would be over!"

Perkins shook his head. "You know, Doctor, I can't tell if you're a genius or just incredibly arrogant."

"On a good day, he's both," Adelaide offered. "Mostly the second."

The Doctor grinned. "Ancient tech. This thing has been around for centuries. How? Tech that keeps it alive. Tech that drains energy from the living."

Adelaide held out a hand. "Scanner." Perkins handed it to her and she quickly scanned Quell's body. "Deep tissue scan. He's been leached of almost all energy on a cellular level. The heart attack is simply a side effect."

"Oh, it's not just a mummy, it's a vampire. Metaphorically speaking."

"But why take sixty-six seconds to drain us? Why not just pounce?"

"Phase," Perkins said, eyes widening. "Moving energy out of phase. That takes about a minute, doesn't it?"

The Doctor snapped at him. "That's why only the victims can see it. It takes them out of phase so it can drain their energy. You, sir, are a genius! This explains everything!"

"Apart from what it is and how it's doing it," Adelaide reminded him.

The Doctor shrugged. "Sorry, I jumped the gun there with the 'you're a genius, this explains everything' remark."

Perkins frowned at his tablet. "I think we know the next victim." He handed it to Adelaide.

The Time Lady nodded. "Of course." After handing it to the Doctor, she pulled out the phone again, calling Clara. "Clara, we've identified the next victim of the Foretold. It's targeting those with either physical or mental weaknesses, which means that Maisie is likely next."

"Look, she's had a bad day," Clara said, her voice quieter than before. "That's all."

"The Foretold doesn't care. Her current bereavement makes her as the next victim."

"Okay, but...but we're in here and...if we stay in here, that thing can't..."

"It can teleport. We need her here. Even the computer agrees." She made the assumption based on the fact Gus had yet to order her to stop.

"Okay, so you can save her? Right?"

"Unfortunately, not at the moment. But this would be another chance to observe it in action."

"As it kills her."

Adelaide nodded. "As it kills her. If it happens in there, her death would be a waste. We need her here."

"How? How exactly? She's never going to agree to this."

Adelaide sighed. "Lie to her. Tell her the Doctor can save her. Whatever you can do to get her here." She hung up the phone, looking at the Doctor. They couldn't speak about a possible plan, but the man's nod confirmed Adelaide's assumption.

After all, after spending so long stuck together on Christmas, they'd maintained an ability to understand each other without speaking.

It took a few minutes for Clara and Maisie to reach the laboratory, but Gus opened the door for them when they did. The Doctor rushed over to shake Maisie's hand. "Hello, again," the woman said, smiling. "I'm Maisie."

"Good for you."

"We passed the TARDIS on the way here," Clara said, moving to Adelaide. "Thought about getting inside, hiding, pulling the levers and hoping for the best. But we couldn't even get in. There was a forcefield around it."

The Doctor used Perkins's scanner on Maisie. "Likely Gus attempting to block our escape," Adelaide nodded.

"But how does he even know what it is? Cos if he knows what it is, then he knows what you two are."

Adelaide shrugged. "He has attempted to entice us here before. Free tickets, mysterious summons. Once he even phoned the TARDIS number, which is quite a difficult number to get access to."

Clara, however, frowned at her. "You knew. You knew this was no relaxing break. You knew this was dangerous."

"We didn't know," the Doctor called. "We certainly hoped."

Clara nodded. "Okay, this." She gestured at them. "You see, this, this is why I'm leaving you. This. Because you lied. You lied to me, again. And now you've made me lie. You've made me your accomplice."

"Sometimes lying is necessary, Clara. Especially in experiments."

"What?" Maisie called, having overheard the conversation. "Sorry? When did you lie? Clara?"

"Maisie, I am...I am so sorry."

But Maisie was focused on something else, her eyes wide as the lights flicker. "Do we start the clock?" Perkins asked.

"Not yet." The Doctor moved to stand in front of Maisie, scanning her. "Focus. Focus. Focus! All of that is your grief, your trauma, your resentment. And now..." He scanned his own head. "It's mine."

Adelaide had to clench her jaw. She'd guessed his plan, been almost completely certain about it, but being confronted by it felt different. To be reminded of how much danger the Doctor was currently putting himself in based on the assumption that he'd be able to figure out how to stop the Foretold before it killed him. She would have offered to take the danger herself, but she knew the Doctor well enough to know that, after her last regeneration, he would never allow it.

Maisie gasped. "It's gone."

But the Doctor was focused where she'd been looking. "No. No, it's not. Not for me. Cos now it thinks I'm you." He tossed the scanner to the side. "Start the clock." He spun to face the mummy. "Hello. I'm so pleased to finally see you. I'm the Doctor and I will be your victim this evening. Are you my mummy?" He smirked. "But you can't hurt me until my time is up." He glanced at Adelaide. "I think. So are there magic words? Is there a way to stop you in your tracks?" He frowned, processing Maisie's mind. "Oh, you really didn't like your gran, did you? There's something visible under the bandages. By the way, you weren't being paranoid. She really did poison your pony."

"Oh!"

"Markings like the ones on the scroll." He made a face. "Oh, and your father...sorry."

"What..."

"A tattered piece of cloth attached to a length of wood that you will kill for."

"Thirty seconds."

Adelaide closed her eyes, processing everything the Doctor could tell her at that moment, everything they learned so far, because she needed to stay calm in order to help the Doctor. She needed to stay logical. "It's not a scroll, it's a flag."

"If this is a flag," the Doctor ran to the 'scroll', "that means that you are a soldier, wounded in a forgotten war thousands of years ago." He spun back to where the mummy apparently was. "But they've worked on you, haven't they, son? They've filled you full of kit. State of the art phase camouflage, personal teleporter."

"Ten seconds."

"And all that tech inside you, it just won't let you die, will it? It won't let the war end. It just won't let the war end. It just won't let you stop until the war is over." He nodded. "We surrender!"

"Zero." Perkins winced as he spoke, bracing for the worst. But the Foretold was just standing in the center of the room.

"I can see it again," Maisie gasped.

The Foretold stepped back, lowering its arm. "It's okay," Clara said. "I think we all can."

"Do I start the clock?"

Adelaide shook her head. "No."

The Foretold saluted the Doctor. "The clock has stopped. You're relieved, soldier." The Foretold disintegrated into dust and old bandages, but the Time Lords couldn't be together immediately. Instead, the Time Lord pulled a small device from the pile.

Clara frowned at it. "We were fighting that?"

"So was he."

"Listen, what I said..."

"Not now, Clara," Adelaide told her. "We're not finished yet."

The Doctor straightened to address the computer. "Well, Gus, I think we solved your little puzzle. Ancient soldier being driven by malfunctioning tech."

"Thank you so much for your efforts," Gus said. "They are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, survivors of this exercise are not required."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic, grabbing more tools from the surrounding tables. "Ah, well, there's a shocker."

A hissing noise started, all of the passengers grasping at their throats. "Air will now be removed from the entire train. We hope you have enjoyed your journey on the Orient Express."

"I take it you know a way out?" Clara asked the Time Lords.

"My enemy's enemy is my friend. Especially when he has a built-in teleporter." A few passengers started to collapse.

"Great! So use it!"

"A little more work..."

"Doctor!"

"Couple of minutes," the Doctor didn't seem that bothered, glancing at Adelaide to ensure she wasn't too affected yet. "Max. We'll give you a shout."

Clara collapsed too and, a few seconds later, the train exploded.

|C-S|

When Clara woke, she was honestly shocked to both find herself on a beach and the Time Lords looking at something the Doctor was writing in the ground. From what Clara could see, it looked like Gallifreyan maths, which this regeneration of the Doctor seemed more interested in than the previous one Clara knew. Adelaide had never expressed a particular interest in it, claiming that maths had never been her strong suit, but the Time Lady did seem interested in the moment.

"Oh hello, again," the Doctor said, glancing up when he spotted Clara was awake. "Sleep well?"Adelaide edited something the Doctor had written.

Clara frowned. "Weren't we just on a train?"

"Oh, that was ages ago."

"And?"

"And what? Oh, and we got off the train." He glanced at Clara's expression. "Oh, well, the teleporter worked eventually. Beamed everyone into the TARDIS. No casualties, just a bevy of sleeping beauties. I tried hacking Gus from the TARDIS, find out who set this all up. He really didn't like that. Set off some fail-safe thing. Blew up the train."

Clara's eyes widened. "Blew up the train?"

Adelaide nodded. "Blew up the train. The Doctor and I left everyone on the nearest civilized planet." She nodded at the skyline in the distance.

"You seemed happy asleep so Adelaide made me leave you."

"It was your idea to let her sleep."

Clara shook her head. "So you saved everyone."

"No, we just saved you and we let everyone else suffocate," the Doctor deadpanned. Clara didn't laugh. "Yeah, this is just our cover story."

Clara sighed, looking at Adelaide. "So, when you lied to Maisie, when you made me lie to Maisie..."

"I was taking a gamble with the Doctor's plan because we couldn't risk Gus learning the plan and stopping him."

"So you were both pretending to be heartless."

That silenced both Time Lords. "Would you like to think that about us?" the Doctor asked quietly. "Would that make it easier? We didn't know if we could save her. We couldn't save Quell, we couldn't save Moorhouse. There was a good chance that she'd just die too."

"At which point," Adelaide continued, "we would have continued onto the next, and the next, until we solved it."

"Until we beat it. Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose."

Adelaide said nothing.

Once upon a time, Adelaide wouldn't have cared about Maisie's death if it helped them determine what the Foretold was and how to stop it. She might not even have cared about how many died. Sometimes, the ends justified the means, so long as she solved it in the end.

If she didn't, perhaps she would have mourned them. Regret it.

Perhaps.

She'd never thought that the Doctor understood that, the way her mind used to work. The way it still did, sometimes, if she didn't focus on shifting her perspective since she'd now realized the detriments of her previous position.

Perhaps she had influenced him just as much as he had her.

|C-S|

Once they'd re-entered the console, the Doctor hurried to find where Perkins had gone since they'd left him. Clara stayed on the upper level with Adelaide, though she didn't look at the Time Lady. She just held her phone, looking down at it, and Adelaide watched her.

She knew that everyone was different, she knew that people changed. But she'd been with Clara this entire time. This wasn't just Clara making the decision to stop. It wasn't what she wanted. And Adelaide didn't like people who tried to make choices for someone else.

The Doctor and Perkins, who'd gone to look at the bottom section of the console, re-emerged. "Well, we won't keep you," the Doctor told the man. "Goodbye, Perkins. Good to meet you."

"You too, Doctor." He nodded at the man before looking at Adelaide. "And you, Adelaide." Between both of them. "And...good luck." He shook the Time Lord's hand and tipped his hat towards Clara as he left.

Once the TARDIS doors closed, the Doctor coming to a stop beside Adelaide, it took Clara a second to speak. "Do you love it?"

"Love what?"

"I know it's scary and difficult, but do you love being the man...and woman making the impossible choice?"

Adelaide said nothing.

"Why would we?"

Clara let out a breath. "Because it's what you do, all day, every day."

"It's what the Doctor does," Adelaide corrected.

The man nodded. "It's my life."

"Doesn't have to be." She paused. "Is it like..."

"An addiction?" Adelaide offered, making Clara flash a smile.

The Doctor shrugged. "You can't really tell if something's an addiction till you try and give it up."

"And you never have."

"Let me know how it goes."

Clara's phone rang and, glancing at them again, hurried up to the upper level to have a bit of privacy as she talked. The Doctor, meanwhile, moved to lean against the console next to Adelaide. "Why'd you say that? About it just being what I do? About addictions?"

Adelaide turned so that she could see him. "Do you really have to ask?"

Adelaide knew that she'd made choices before. That she'd made impossible choices, bad choices, choices when there'd been no right way. That throughout her time before she and the Doctor traveled together she'd made various choices for civilizations and planets.

She wouldn't have amassed an army that could have had the smallest chance against the Daleks if she hadn't.

But she hadn't liked it. She hadn't wanted to do it. She'd never wanted to. The Doctor, no matter what he said, liked to make those choices. He liked to get involved, liked to help solve a problem. Liked to help save people.

And she did too. Adelaide had learned to love to save and help people when she could. But she didn't like to choose for them.

It was why she ran from the Time War. She hadn't wanted to choose for all those planets, all those people.

She hadn't wanted to blow up or save the moon.

She hadn't wanted that weight on her.

In Adelaide's ideal universe, she could travel the universe with nothing holding her back. No responsibilities, no restrictions. Just her and the stars. Just learning. Not interfering.

"Sometimes we're the only ones who can make a choice."

"I don't believe that." Adelaide pushed herself away from the console, but the Doctor grabbed her hand. "Really, Doctor. The only time that Time Lords have that authority is when time itself is involved, and then it's only a matter of maintaining the order of events as they've always occured. Things like moons shouldn't be our concern."

Clara went quiet again and both Time Lords turned to look at her. "Was that Danny?" the Doctor asked. "What did he want?"

She took a deep breath, smiling. "He's fine with it."

The Doctor frowned. "Sorry..."

Clara started to descend the stairs. "Danny. He's fine with the idea of me and you two knocking about. It was his idea that we stop but...he's decided he doesn't mind and neither do I." Her smile grew. "Oh, to hell with the last hurrah. Let's keep going."

"That's a big change of heart."

She shrugged. "Yeah, they happen."

"Seriously?"

Clara fixed them with a look. "Look, as long as you get me home safe and on time, everything is great." She nodded. "I am so sorry. I've had a wobble. It's a big wobble, but it's fine. Forget about it. Now, shut up and give me some planets."

Adelaide let herself smile too. "What about one made entirely from shrubs?" But then she paused. "Are you sure?"

"Are you?" Clara looked between them. "Have you ever been sure?"

"No." The Time Lords answered in unison.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she stepped up to the console between them. "Let's go."

Together, they pulled three levers, sending the TARDIS into flight again.

 **A/N: It seems the Time Lords really have had an effect on each other, for better or for worse...**


	17. Find the Monsters

**Find the Monsters**

Adelaide glanced up from her book as she heard Clara approach from the rest of the TARDIS, as the human had gone hunting for any little thing she'd left inside. Apparently, Danny had requested that, while Clara was allowed to continue traveling, she couldn't leave anything there. It was helpful that Clara had never really lived in the TARDIS, not like Amy had for a while, but she did have a variety of odd things scattered about. Since it was such a simple task, Adelaide hadn't bothered to stay at the console helping the Doctor pilot and had instead gone to continue what she'd been reading earlier.

"You could leave all that stuff here, you know," the Doctor mumbled as Clara arrived, shoving a scarf into her bag. "We do have literally acres of room."

"Oh, no, it's alright. Danny's got a little bit territorial. The idea of me leaving so much of a toothbrush here..." she shrugged. "But, still, he's alright with us doing this...which I admit's a little bit weird, cause you'd think if he had a problem with me leaving stuff in the TARDIS, he'd object to me traveling in the TARDIS...but he's not, so..."

"Sorry," the Doctor cut her off. "Stopped listening a while ago. Okay." He frowned. "Er, same time you left, same place...ish."

Clara paused. "Ish? Don't give me an ish."

The Doctor glanced up at Adelaide, meeting her gaze. The Time Lady stood and hurried to join him at the console. "These readings are very...ishy."

"Doctor," Adelaide said, stopping in sight of the door. "I found the ish."

Both him and Clara turned to look at the TARDIS door, which had shrunk to only a few feet high.

|C-S|

The Doctor turned to help Adelaide out of the miniature door of the TARDIS the moment he'd emerged, both of them stepping back to observe it as Clara climbed out as well. There was the sound of a train in the distance. The TARDIS had shrunk to about the height of a few feet.

"Well," the Doctor frowned. "Well, I wonder what caused this? I don't think we're bigger, are we?" Adelaide just gave him a look.

"Bristol?" Clara pointed at a nearby sign. "We're in Bristol!"

The Doctor scanned the surrounding area. "And a hundred and twenty miles from where we should be. Impressive."

"No. Not impressive. Annoying."

"No. This is impressive." He gestured at the TARDIS and pointed at Clara. "This is annoying."

"The TARDIS never does this. It really shouldn't," Adelaide said, pulling the Doctor's hand down.

He nodded. "This is huge! Well, not literally huge. Slightly smaller than usual. Which is huge."

Clara sighed. "Yes. I get it. You're excited. When can I go home?"

"Your house isn't going anywhere. And neither is ours until we get this figured out." He glanced at Clara. "Could you not just let us enjoy this moment of not knowing something? I mean, it happens so rarely."

"Do your regenerations just trade-off that opinion?" Adelaide mumbled, making him look at her. "You love it, the last one hated it, the one before that loved it. It's like you're taking turns."

She, instead, had maintained a similar opinion throughout regenerations. She supposed she'd always been intrigued by the unknown, but it had developed into a fear, with Adelaide preferring to learn everything and anything as quickly as she possibly could. It was what made mysteries both so annoying and intriguing; she just really wanted to solve them.

The Doctor grinned at her before turning back to Clara. "Look, I don't think this is dangerous, but I'm sure Adelaide wouldn't like you to get squished accidentally. Anyway, we need you to help us find out what's caused this."

"Fine," Clara huffed. "I'll go take a look around." She moved past them to walk along the tracks and the Time Lords climbed back into the TARDIS, Adelaide for once finding her height a distinct asset.

They hurried back to the console, checking various alarms and scanners. Other than the general 'ishyness' that the Doctor had previously mentioned, nothing seemed to be seriously wrong. He pulled up one of the panels to examine the circuitry beneath, Adelaide moving beside him to set a new scan of the surrounding area, though it quickly failed.

"I've never even heard of something like this before," Adelaide mumbled, frowning at it.

The entire TARDIS jolted, an alarm sounding. The Doctor looked around, rubbing where he'd hit his elbow on the console. "Now, that wasn't me, was it?" He turned to look at the door, pausing. "Oh, that can't be good." The door had shrunk to the point that there was no hope for the Time Lords to fit back through.

"We'd better hope Clara comes back." Just as Adelaide finished speaking, her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey," it was Clara, "I think I've found something. People are missing all over the estate. Do you think there's a connection?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Could be."

"And where are you?"

"Exactly where we were."

"No, you're not. I'm here and I can't see...oh."

"Yes." The Doctor nodded. "Oh."

Clara laughed. "Oh my God, that is so adorable. Are you two in there?"

"Yes, we are," Adelaide said.

"And, no, it's not adorable," the Doctor said, stepping closer to the doors. "It's very, very serious."

"So is this more shrink ray stuff? Are you tiny in there?"

"No, we're exactly the same size," Adelaide said. "The exterior dimensions have changed."

The Doctor opened the small door, attempting to look out through it. "Stop laughing! This is serious."

"Yeah, well, I can't help it, can I, with you and your big old face," Clara laughed again. "How are you going to get out?"

"Well, plainly we can't. Something nearby is leeching all the external dimensions."

"Aliens?"

He shrugged. "Possibly. Oh, who am I kidding? Probably. Sensors are down and I can't risk taking off with it in this state. Clara, I need you to pick up the TARDIS. Carefully."

"It should be possible," Adelaide said, switching a few things on the console. "I've just adjusted the relative gravity."

Clara picked it up, though they couldn't feel it inside the TARDIS, and held it up to her eye level. "You mean you've made it lighter."

"Clara, it's always lighter," the Doctor sighed. "If the TARDIS were to land with its true weight, it would fracture the surface of the Earth."

"Yeah, maybe a story for another time. What now?"

"I managed to get an estimate of the source of the dimensional leeching," Adelaide said. "Roughly north-west."

The Doctor stuck his fingers through the door, gesturing in the direction. "That way."

Clara made a face. "Please don't do that. That's just wrong."

The Doctor ran back to the console, gathering a variety of objects. "Now, listen! You're going to need these." He stuck the psychic paper through the door.

"Oh, wow. This is an honor. Does this mean I'm you now?"

"No, it does not," the Doctor pointed at her through the door, "so don't get any ideas." He passed her the sonic next before Clara put the TARDIS in her shoulder bag. "And listen," he shoved a small box through the gap, hurrying back to the console, "stick it in your ear." He messed with a few things. "Can you hear us?"

"Yes." Clara winced. "Ow! What just happened?"

"Nanotech." The Doctor pulled over the monitor. "I just hacked your optic nerve."

"What does that mean?"

"We see what you see."

Clara turned sharply around, pointing the sonic at a block of flats, then a mural of foot and handprints. "Anything?"

"Yes, I'm dizzy," the Doctor said. "But nothing useful."

"You never did tell me your name," a voice called, a boy in a worker's vest jogging up to her.

"No time to fraternize. Come on, get rid of him."

"I'm...er...I'm the Doctor."

The Doctor glared at the monitor. "Don't you dare."

"Doctor Oswald. But you can call me Clara."

"I'm Rigsy." The boy shook her hand. "So...er...what are you a doctor of?"

"Of lies."

Clara, meanwhile, shrugged. "Well, I'm usually quite vague about that. I think I just picked the title because it makes me sound important."

"Why, Doctor Oswald, you are hilarious," the Doctor mumbled.

"Back to work, Clara, please," Adelaide said.

"What are you exactly?" Rigsy asked her. "You don't smell like police but that's some pretty cool gear you got there." He gestured at her ear. "You like a spy, or something?"

"Oh, he's a bright one," the Doctor scoffed, "hang on to him."

|C-S|

Rigsy turned out to be quite helpful, despite the Doctor's almost constant mumblings of annoyance. It had quickly reached a point where Adelaide just didn't bother attempting to get him to stop.

"He was the last one to go missing," Rigsy explained, breaking through the police tape across the front door of the flat he'd brought Clara to. "And when he disappeared all the doors and windows were locked from the inside."

Adelaide leaned against the console beneath the monitor, studying the room beyond. "Always a fan of a locked room mystery."

Clara nodded. "Yeah, isn't everyone?"

Rigsy looked at her, frowning. "What?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm talking to somebody else. They're listening in. Doctor and Adelaide, Rigsy. Rigsy, the Doctor and Adelaide."

The Doctor flicked a switch on the console. "Hello, barely sentient local." Adelaide sighed at that.

"Another Doctor?"

"How do you sleep at night?" he scoffed.

Adelaide put a hand on his shoulder. "Missing people, tiny TARDIS. Need a link."

Clara scanned the room with the sonic. "I think this is great that someone's finally looking into this," Rigsy said as she moved around. "They never do on this estate. People were thinking that no one was listening. That no one cared. So, yeah. I think it's great what you're doing."

"Clara, look, I think that we can manage on our own from now on," the Doctor interrupted.

"Yeah, well, I think he could still be useful."

"He's a pudding brain. Worse than that, he's a fluorescent pudding brain."

Clara sighed. "Okay, fine. And all those other missing people, I suppose you know where they lived."

"He could still be in the room," Rigsy commented.

Clara turned to him. "Sorry, what?"

"Sorry, nothing. I was just thinking out loud. It's like one of those locked room things you get in books. It's always something weird, like, he's still in the room or something."

Adelaide smiled. "I like him."

"Do you want to go and check out another flat?"

"Do you know," the Doctor said, "I think that you were wrong about this lad. I think that he could be very useful. Vital local knowledge."

Clara glanced at herself in the mirror, holding back her own smile. "Oh, really?"

"Yes. So try not to scare him off."

"How would I scare him off?"

"Maybe he's lost in the desert," Rigsy commented, looking at a mural on the wall, "or something."

"Maybe not so valuable," the Doctor mumbled, and Adelaide didn't contradict him.

Clara moved a bit more around the room. "Okay, right. Are we missing something here? Missing man, locked room." She looked at the mural, scanning it for them. "Shrink ray?"

"Sorry," Rigsy glanced at her, "did you say...just say shrink ray?"

"What if he is still in this room like you said, only tiny? You know, like underneath the sofa or something."

"Clara," Adelaide said, "this is scaring off."

Rigsy stepped back. "Okay. So...er...my lunch break's nearly up. This...this has been...er...interesting."

"Clara, local knowledge is leaving. Do something!"

"Rigsy!" Clara called as the man moved towards the door. "One sec. One of you, open the doors."

"We didn't mean that!"

"Look," Clara sighed, "you want him to stay or not?"

The Doctor pouted. "You really do throw your companions in at the deep end, don't you?"

Clara put the TARDIS on a shelf, Adelaide opening the doors with the Doctor beside her. "Rigsy, come here. Meet the Doctor and Adelaide." Rigsy stared at the two of them in shock. "So, what do you think? Tiny man idea."

"Yes, it's a lovely thought. Which is why I set the sonic to scan for that as soon as we entered." He waved at Rigsy. "Pleased to meet you."

Clara frowned. "And you didn't think to tell me?"

"Of course, it is highly possible that, if that were true, he's been squashed by a policeman's shoe," Adelaide shrugged.

"It's bigger," Rigsy breathed. "On the inside."

"Do you know," the Doctor nodded, "I don't think that statement's ever been truer."

"What are you?" Rigsy looked at Clara. "Like, aliens, or something?"

"No. Well, they are." An alarm sounded at the console, sending the Doctor running back up to see it. "Did you guys hear that?"

Adelaide nodded. "Yes."

"Whatever it was, it just drained a massive amount of energy from inside the TARDIS," the Doctor called.

"What was it?"

"We don't know, but that's the least of our problems." The Doctor looked to Clara and Adelaide. "Just get us out of there."

The Time Lady shut the door, returning to the console with him.

"Okay," Clara huffed, turning to Rigsy. "Rigsy, this is where we run. Stick with me." They started to run the moment they stepped out the door.

"I mean this is just embarrassing," the Doctor mumbled, frowning at the results. "We're from the race that built the TARDIS. Dimensions are kind of our thing. So why can't we understand this?"

"Yet. Why can't we understand this yet." She moved closer to where Clara's device was picking up their voice. "Clara, we need more information. Where else have people disappeared?"

|C-S|

A policewoman returned the psychic paper to Clara. "MI5?"

Clara nodded. "Yes, this case has got our attention."

"Well, you've come to the right place, ma'am. First reported disappearance, a Mr. Heath. It's not on the estate, but it's exactly the same MO as the rest."

"Clara," the Doctor called, interrupting, "I think that your shrink ray theory was wrong."

Clara pulled out her mobile, making it look as though she'd just received an urgent call. "My shrink ray theory? I thought you were already scanning for that."

"It's like they vanished..." the officer continued.

"Doctor, Adelaide, what are you doing?"

Adelaide took the Doctor's place. "Locked room mysteries. Classic solution number one, they're still in the room. Classic solution number two, they're in the walls." The Doctor hurried to the TARDIS doors, hammer in hand.

"What do you mean, they're in the..." Clara took the hammer from him.

"Have we done as much as we could?" the officer had kept speaking. "No. Do we have any suspects? No. Off the record, I think the top brass are hoping if they ignore this it'll all just go away."

Clara stepped back up to them. "Apparently, they're in the walls." She handed the hammer to Rigsy who, to his credit, only stared at it for a moment before moving to a wall and starting to hit it.

The officer's phone rang. "PC Forrest. Yes, sir. MI5, sir," she left the room to finish the call.

"So," Rigsy looked to her, "you and those two in that box. You do this sort of stuff a lot?"

Clara shrugged. "Oh, well, they're usually out of the box. But, yep."

"So how'd you get this gig? You study science, or aliens, or something?"

She laughed. "No. Well, it's kind of more of a right place, right time or wrong place, wrong time depending on how he's behaving."

"I can hear you, you know," the Doctor grumbled.

Someone screamed, and the two humans ran to the next room, where the officer had gone...but there was no officer. "PC Forrest?" Clara asked. "Hello? Hello?" she walked up to the torch in the middle of the room. "She's gone."

The Doctor rubbed his forehead. "What are we missing? The TARDIS should be able to detect anything in the known universe."

Adelaide's eyes widened as Clara looked around the room. "The known universe, Doctor. Clara, go back. To the mural." Clara looked at it. "That's a nervous system."

He nodded. "Scaled up and flattened. I think we've found PC Forrest. What's left of her, at least."

"Her nervous system."

The Doctor pulled up previous images of what Clara had seen. "The mural in the flat. That wasn't a desert at all. It's a microscopic blow up of human skin."

"What? Why?"

"Whatever they are," Adelaide said, "they're experimenting. They're testing. They're...dissecting. Attempting to understand us. Attempting to understand three dimensions."

There was a sizzling noise and a door slammed shut. Rigsy moved to it, attempting to open it again, but pulled his hand back. "Ow." But then his eyes widened, reaching out to touch it again. "The handle."

"The handle," Clara breathed, "they've flattened the handle."

"Fascinating," Adelaide mumbled, unable to help herself because it was. "Clare, they're in the walls. Stay away from them. If they touch you, they can...flatten you."

The sofa and cushions lost their third dimension as well. "What happens if they touch us?" Rigsy asked, another chair doing the same.

"I really don't want to find out."

The two climbed onto a hanging seat. "They can't jump, can they?"

Clara's phone went off, starting to talk to Danny. "Hey, you."

"Ever seen something like this before?" the Doctor asked Adelaide.

"Not that I remember. Have you?"

"Never." The two grinned at each other.

Okay, Adelaide could admit that not knowing could be fun. Especially if you had someone to not know things with.

"Clara," the Doctor called, having attempting to figure out a way to get Clara and Rigsy out of the room as they talked, "the window!"

"Look! Look!" Rigsy shouted. "They're climbing the walls."

"Er..." Clara said, responding to something Danny had said, "that's just a guy on community support and I'm helping him find his auntie." She started to swing the hanging chair, attempting to get it to launch them out the window.

"Nice," the Doctor nodded. "Not technically lying."

"Er...yeah, there was a thing...er...no, no, no, I'm fine!" she soniced the window as the chair broke away from the ceiling, sending the two humans flying outside.

 **A/N: Much more of a fun adventure here, especially when compared to the ending of the last one!**


	18. Stop the Monsters

**Stop the Monsters**

The Time Lords leaned back against the console, thinking as Clara and Rigsy hurried away from the flats. "This explains everything," the Doctor said. "They're from a universe with only two dimensions."

Adelaide nodded. "It's been theorized for a long time, but no one was ever able to go there and prove its existence. I witnessed a debate over it on Gallifrey."

The Doctor turned to her, eyes wide. "Was it while you were a student?" She nodded. "I was there! Where were you sitting?"

"We can discuss this later." She turned back around to the screen. "And what story were you planning on telling Danny?" she asked Clara, transitioning with ease from her conversation with the Doctor.

The Doctor turned around too. "Or haven't you made it up yet?"

"Sorry, what?" Clara asked. "What was that?"

"Excellent lying, Dr. Oswald."

"Yeah?" Clara shrugged. "Well, thought it was pretty weak myself."

"I meant to us. You told us that Danny was okay with you being back on board the TARDIS."

"Well, he is."

Adelaide nodded. "Yes, because he doesn't know anything about it."

"Adelaide..."

"Congratulations," the Doctor said. "Lying is a vital survival skill."

"Well, there you go."

"But Adelaide hates it."

The screen went static, Clara wincing. "You're breaking up a bit."

The Doctor nodded, not seeing the screen. "Yeah, of course we are."

"No, really, Doctor," Adelaide said, making him turn around. "Breaking through the window could have affected the earpiece. Take it out and sonic it."

"Doing it." Clara did so, cutting off their communication with her for a moment. "Does it even still count as lying if you're doing it for someone's own good?" she mumbled, the Time Lords still able to hear her. "Well, like, technically their own good."

"...it's graffiti," another man was saying. "Stan."

Rigsy grabbed the paintbrush at the same moment Clara looked at the murals in question, and the Time Lords realized what had happened. "Clara, Clara!"

The Doctor ran to the TARDIS doors, sticking out his finger to poke Clara's elbow. "Clara, the mural. Clara, it's the mural! Over there, look, the mural! We've found the missing people, they're in the walls!"

Clara replaced the earbud. "What do I do?"

"Act normal, but get everyone out."

Clara walked over to the group of men. "They're very realistic. Who painted them?"

"I don't know," Rigsy shrugged. "A local artist. Probably a grieving relative."

"Did you ever meet them? Or did they just appear after people disappeared?"

One of the men sneered at Clara. "And who are you when you're at home, love?"

Clara showed him the psychic paper. "Health and safety. This subway is unsafe. Everyone needs to leave right now."

But the man shook his head. "This is blank. Try again, sweetheart."

"What?" Clara looked at the paper.

"What?" the Doctor frowned. "It takes quite a lack of imagination to beat psychic paper."

"Stan," the man called. "Do your job."

"Clara," Adelaide ordered, "stop him."

But before she could do anything, Stan had touched the brush to the wall and was immediately sucked in.

"Stan!" Rigsy shouted, all of the images starting to turn.

"What is this?" another man said. "What are they?"

"They're wearing the dead like camouflage."

"Forget Stan," Clara told them. "Your friend's gone."

"Clara, get them out of there!"

Clara grabbed Rigsy's arm. "We need to move. Now."

The remaining group turned and ran down the tunnel, the images chasing them on the walls and floor. They managed to get into a train shed and slam the door behind them, Clara Sonicing it.

"Did they follow us?" one of the men asked. "Cos I didn't see them follow us. Are we safe?"

"Are we really hiding from killer graffiti? This is insane."

"I agree," the Doctor mumbled, glancing at Adelaide. "We'll have to think of a better name for them than that."

"I'm the one who gets to classify it," Adelaide said, the Doctor nodding, before they redirected their attention to Clara and the situation at hand. "Clara, this is a vital stage. This group is currently confused and disoriented, but soon a leader is going to emerge. You need to make certain that leader is you, and that no one questions you."

Adelaide didn't feel like having anyone thrown out into xtonic sunlight today.

"I'm on it." Clara nodded, stepping up to one of the men who seemed the most scared about this whole thing. "George. George, isn't it? Can you watch that area?" she pointed. "If you hear anything, anything moves, you shout, okay?"

"He will do no such thing until I get some answers," the man, who seemed to have been in charge of all the men initially, snapped. "Who are you? That's what I want to know. Impersonating a government official. Trespassing on council property."

"Seriously?"

He nodded. "Seriously."

"Fine, I'll tell you who I am. I am the one chance you've got of staying alive. That's who I am."

Both Time Lords nodded at that. "Well done."

Clara started to give the various men jobs in the surrounding area, looking at Rigsy first. "Rigsy, how well do you know this area? Do you know where that door leads?"

He nodded. "It's the old Brunswick line. But it's not safe."

"Well," another man, Al now that they could see his name tag, shrugged, "there's safe and there's safe."

"Yeah, I know it. I used to go down there all the time."

"Yeah, I'll bet you did," the previous leader mumbled. "Painting your filth."

"Yeah, well, you might be glad he did," Clara snapped at him. "Those things come in here, that is our only way out." She turned and stepped away, speaking under her breath. "I just hope I can keep them all alive."

"Ah," the Doctor shrugged, "welcome to my world." He glanced at Adelaide as he said that, but the Time Lady said nothing to add herself to that statement. "So what's next, Doctor Clara?"

"Lie to them."

Adelaide frowned. "What?"

"Lie to them. Give them hope. Tell them they're all going to be fine. Isn't that what you two would do?"

"Depends on the situation," Adelaide admitted. "People with hope tend to run faster, but if people think they're doomed..."

"They dawdle," Clara finished. "End up dead."

Both Time Lords blinked. "So that's what I sound like," they mumbled in unison, neither really realizing that the other had said anything.

The Doctor moved to something on the console. "Right, here's something that might help you. Do you remember the graffiti from the estate? Footprints, tire treads?"

"Vaguely."

"Well, I don't think it was graffiti."

Adelaide nodded. "It was how the creatures saw us initially, as the impressions made in two-dimensional space. They attempted to reach out and talk, but when they got no response they moved into flattening and dissection. Attempting to understand, to emulate."

The Doctor leaned against the console. "But here's the big question. Do they know they're hurting us?"

"So what? You think this is all one big misunderstanding?"

He shrugged. "That's a very good question. Why don't we ask them?"

|C-S|

Clara ended up finding a speaker system that she had Rigsy get a step-ladder to help her reach. "We need to find a way to communicate," the Doctor said as she worked to sonic it.

"Why can't the TARDIS just translate?"

"Their idea of language is just as bizarre as their idea of space." Adelaide typed a few things into the console. "Even the TARDIS is confused."

"This is a bad idea," the previous leader, a man named Fenton, shook his head. "What makes these colleagues of yours think those monsters even want to talk?"

The Doctor started to move around the TARDIS, attempting to find something, as Adelaide spoke. "I once knew a race made of sentient gas who throw fireballs as a friendly wave."

"I know one," the Doctor called, "with sixty-four stomachs who talk to each other by disemboweling."

"They've got a hunch," Clara translated.

"Our point being that in a universe as immense and bizarre as this one, you cannot be too quick to judge." He returned to the console, reaching for something under it. "Perhaps these creatures don't even understand that we need three dimensions to live in. They may not even know that they're hurting us."

"Do you really believe that?"

"No, I really hope that," he admitted. "It would make a nice change, wouldn't it?"

"Let's start with pi," Adelaide said. "Even flat worlds have circles."

"She doesn't mean edible pie, she means circular pi," the Doctor said, as though Clara hadn't understood. "Which I realize would also mean edible pie but..." Adelaide gave him a look "anyway..." He typed it on the console and sounds came out of the speakers, the TARDIS picking up something. "They're responding. The TARDIS is translating now. It's a number. Fifty-five."

"Fifty-five? What does that mean?"

"Tenth Fibonacci number," the Doctor offered. "Atomic number of cesium."

"I know what it means," Rigsy called. "We all have numbers on our jackets. Have to sign them out. That was the number on Stan's jacket, the man they flattened in the subway."

"They're gloating."

"We can't know that."

Clara nodded. "It could be an apology, for all we know."

"Really?" Al said. "That's nice of them."

"An apology?" Fenton asked him. "Are you seriously..."

There was another sound, the TARDIS translating it too. "Two two. Twenty-two."

"Twenty-two."

Rigsy nodded. "That's George."

Fenton turned to the man. "Looks like your number's up, George. Now they're threatening."

"Maybe," Clara said. "Or maybe they're showing us they can read."

"Oh, grow up," Fenton scoffed. "They're picking targets."

"Of course you'd see it that way."

"What do you mean by that?"

But Clara had focused on George, the man not moving. "George?" the two men had started to shout at each other, but Clara had started to move closer.

"Clara, be careful."

She got close enough that, when she stepped to the side, she saw George as a flat image. It dissolved into the wall and floor a moment later. "The tunnel!" she shouted to the others, turning back to them. "Doctor, Adelaide, they've got George."

"We know. We did see."

"What now?"

"Give me a minute." He stepped away from the console again, starting to make a device. "I'm working on it."

|C-S|

After a bit of running, the group had reached the disused tunnel, though they'd found a door with a flat handle. While the Doctor worked, Adelaide was watching the monitor. "Another flat handle," Clara said. "They were here. Not now. They've stopped chasing us, I think. It feels like they're cornering us."

"You can't apply human logic," Adelaide told her. "These are creatures from another dimension."

"That's three exits all blocked by those creatures," Al said, who'd been keeping track.

"Rigsy, where's the next exit?"

"The only other one I can think of is where the old line joins the new, but it's a fair walk. Getting through that door would be quicker."

"But we can't, can we?" Fenton snapped.

"I'm just saying."

"Clara," Adelaide glanced back at the Doctor's work, "we might be able to help with that door."

"Give me five minutes," the Doctor said, nodding.

|C-S|

It was five minutes exactly when Clara called out to the Time Lords again. "So this thing you're working on?"

"I think I've figured out a way to restore three dimensions," the Doctor said. "At least on a small scale, say door handles."

"So, what's that, then? A de-flattener?"

The doctor made a face, moving to the front of the TARDIS. "We're not calling it a de-flattener." He passed it to her through the doors. "This should be able to restore dimensions. You see what I've called it?"

"Two D Is? Two Dee Iz?"

"No. Twodis. It's called the Twodis." He sighed. "Why'd I even bother?"

"Took the question right from me," Adelaide said, making him roll his eyes.

"Give it a go, then."

Clara aimed the device at the door, sending out pulses of green light, smoke, and a spark...but nothing happened. "Long way round it is." She shoved the device back into her bag to the Doctor.

But both Time Lords spun when an alarm went off. "Clara, we don't know how, but they're doing it again," the Doctor called. "They're leeching the TARDIS!"

"How? Your doors have closed."

"They've changed frequency. This time it's different."

"Listen!" Clara turned to the men. "The Doctor and Adelaide think we might be in trouble. They think they might be close."

"Where, exactly?"

"I don't know. They're not sure. They're getting readings all around." She frowned at a shadow at the edge of her sight.

"Oh, that's just great," Fenton mumbled. "Sounds important but means absolutely nothing. Can you tell your friends-"

He was cut off by a hand that separated from the wall and grabbed Al, pulling him back into the wall as he screamed.

"Of course," the Doctor breathed. "The next stage. 3D."

"Run!" Rigsy shouted, pointing at the ground.

"The door," Clara called. "The handle's flattened."

The Doctor ran to the doors again, passing the device back out. "I've boosted the output."

"And it will work this time?"

"Absolutely." Clara pointed it at the door but, this time, the handle became three dimensional again. Rigsy opened it and they rushed through, locking it behind them, before starting to run again.

"Clara, you need to use it again," Adelaide called. "It should be able to reverse the process."

"There's a ladder at the end of this," Rigsy said. "If we get down into the tunnel, we can make it into daylight."

"Hang on! Hang on..." Clara used the device again, flattening the wheel.

"If it's flat, we're safe now, aren't we?" Fenton asked.

"They can't get through, can they?"

Clara held out a hand. "Wait..."

There was a sound from the other side of the door and it became three dimensional again, making everyone run. "They have a new ability," Adelaide mumbled. "Wasn't thinking straight. Now that they're 3D, they can restore dimensions."

The Doctor came up to Adelaide's side again. "Clara, do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"Were in the bad news!" Clara shouted back. "I'm living the bad news!"

"The good news is I've come up with a theoretical way to send them back to their own dimension."

"Do it! Now!"

"And that's the bad news." The Doctor glanced at Adelaide. "The TARDIS doesn't have enough dimensional energy to pull it off."

"Great," Clara sighed, the small group of them needing to come to a stop to catch their breath again. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Apparently these things can pump it out as fast as they can steal it."

"Maybe if I ask them really nicely, they'll fill you up again. Hey!"

Fenton grabbed her bag and pulled the TARDIS out, looking for the device. "Give me that machine! Hand it over!"

Rigsy lunged for him, but in the struggle, the TARDIS fell over the railing. Almost immediately, alarms started blaring, both Time Lords running to get anything working.

"Doctor?" Clara called. "Adelaide? Hello? Look, can we please deal with this later? Because we need to move. Doctor? Adelaide? I dropped you down a hole. Where are you?"

"We don't know," the Doctor shouted. "The shields have gone. Structural integrity is failing. Another blow like that and we've had it."

Adelaide ran to the doors, looking out. "We're on the train lines. And there's a train coming."

"Of course there is," the Doctor groaned. "Short-term re-materialization? Not enough power. Teleport?"

"Not enough power."

"Re-route the heart of the TARDIS through – not enough power!" He looked ready to hit something. "Not enough power!"

"Can't you move the TARDIS?"

"Clara, there is no power, pay attention," Adelaide snapped. "The TARDIS wouldn't be able to boil an egg right now."

"Listen, do what you can to get those people out of there. You're stronger than you know."

"No," Clara cut him off, "I mean you move the TARDIS. Like Addams Family."

Both Time Lords' eyes widened and Adelaide turned back to the door, sticking her hand through and dragging the box off the tracks. The Doctor cheered but at that moment the vibration from the approaching train knocked the TARDIS back onto the tracks. It was too close, Adelaide didn't have enough time to get the box back off. They only just had a chance to close the doors and for the Doctor to dive beneath the console and rip something up.

The TARDIS was filled with a bright light, but it faded quickly. Adelaide slowly walked back up to the Doctor, both knowing exactly what he'd done.

Siege mode. Normally not something Time Lords did, but normally it was fine if they did. But not now.

Because now, the TARDIS almost had no power.

Now, they were trapped in the console room with a dead console and no heating and a limited amount of air.

The Doctor turned up his collar to attempt to maintain heat, Adelaide pulling her jacket close around her.

"I don't know if you can still hear me out there," the Doctor called to Clara, even though they both knew that entering siege mode had cut off the communication, "but the TARDIS is now in siege mode. No way in, no way out. I managed to turn it on just before the train hit. But there's not enough power left now to turn it off."

|C-S|

The Doctor would have hit the scanner if he'd been alone in the TARDIS. They could somewhat see what Clara was doing, but not enough that they could really tell what it was or if it would be successful. "No, no, no. What are you doing?"

"You did just call Clara smart," Adelaide reminded him.

"I called her strong. Not necessarily the same thing."

It was a sign of how bad of a situation this was that Adelaide said nothing to correct him.

|C-S|

"Life support failing," the Doctor mumbled. "I don't know if you'll ever hear this, Clara. I don't even know if you're still alive out there." Adelaide frowned as the room started to shake, red energy streaming into the console and giving it back the power it needed. "But you were good!" he cheered. "And you made a mighty fine Doctor."

They moved around the console, bringing it out of siege mode and returning it to the proper size. The Doctor flicked someone on the console, transmitting through the speakers of the tunnel again. "We tried to talk. I want you to remember that. We tried to reach out, we tried to understand you, but I think that you understand us perfectly. And I think you just don't care."

"We don't know if you're here to invade," Adelaide started, "infiltrate or just replace."

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't suppose it really matters now. You are monsters. That is the role you seem determined to play." He looked at Adelaide before stepping out of the TARDIS, the Time Lady bringing up a force field to keep them back. "So it seems I must play mine. The man that stops the monsters. We're sending you back to your own dimension. Who knows? Some of you may even survive the trip. And, if you do, remember this. You are not welcome here. This plane is protected. I am the Doctor." He turned and Clara threw him back his sonic. "And I name you the Boneless!" he soniced the force field, sending out pulses of energy that made the Boneless start to disintegrate.

Adelaide watched him from the console.

The Doctor was the man who stopped the monsters, but what did that make Adelaide? Was she the woman that stopped the monsters? She didn't like that. She'd never been that.

Sometimes she would be, accidentally. But rarely intentionally. Never intentionally, until she'd started to travel with the Doctor.

He was the man who stopped the monsters, but she was the woman who learned about the stars.

That was all they were.

There were monsters, and then there were Time Lords.

When the Doctor turned back to Adelaide, he grinned widely. Adelaide didn't smile back immediately.

|C-S|

With the TARDIS back in full working order, they used the TARDIS to pick up Clara, Fenton, Rigsy, and a train driver named Bill they'd gotten to help. Bill seemed incredibly thankful to be alive, kissing the ground. Clara chuckled at him as Rigsy walked off with her phone, using it to call home. "You all right?" Clara asked Bill.

"I'm alive, and I've been inside that." He pointed at the TARDIS. "I think I'm up on the deal. Come here." He hugged her tightly. "Thank you." He nodded at the Time Lords, still smiling, before looking at Fenton. "You look chipper." With another nod, he walked off.

"Do people still say chipper?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Apparently." He looked to Clara. "Are you okay?"

"I'm alive."

"And a lot of people died."

"It's like a forest fire, though, isn't it?" Fenton asked them. "The objective is to save the great trees, not the brushwood. Am I right?"

Adelaide winced, but the Doctor was the one who spoke. "It wasn't a fire, those weren't trees, those were people."

"They were Community Payback scumbags, I wouldn't lose any sleep."

"I bet you wouldn't."

Fenton looked around them. "It's good to be alive though. Thank you. Seriously, thank you." He nodded and walked off as well.

"Yes, a lot of people died and maybe the wrong people survived," the Doctor mumbled.

Clara shrugged. "Yeah, but we saved the world, right?"

"We did," Adelaide admitted, trying to remind herself that she would have never agreed with Fenton, not exactly. She would have sacrificed people to solve a problem, would have felt that the end justified the means, but she would have remembered, in the end, that they'd all been living things. Wouldn't she have? "You did."

Clara nodded. "Okay, so, on balance."

"Balance?" the Doctor frowned.

"Yeah, that's how you two think, isn't it?"

"Largely so other people don't have to."

She shrugged again. "Yeah, well, I was you today. I was the Doctor. And, apparently, I was quite good at it."

He winced. "You heard that, did you?"

"Yeah, but the power was going off so I suppose you were delirious." She smirked. "You didn't know what you were saying."

"Yes." Rigsy returned to them, finished with his call. "Ah!" the Doctor turned to him. "The return of the fluorescent pudding brain."

"You do realize he can hear you now?" Clara reminded him.

"I know. Your last painting was so good it saved the world. Can't wait to see what you do next."

Rigsy chuckled. "It's not going to be easy. I've got a hair band to live up to." Both Time Lords frowned, but he turned to Clara, holding out a hand. "Thanks."

"Come here." Clara hugged him and he walked off. "Admit it. I did well." Her phone rang, but Clara just tapped the screen and ignored it.

"Is that PE?"

"Just say it," Clara said, clearly trying to distract them. "Why can't you just say it? Why can't you just say I did good?"

"Talk to soldier boy."

"One, you two shouldn't be telling anyone else to talk." Clara gave them a look. "And two, it's not him. Come on, why can't you say it? I was the Doctor and I was good."

He smiled. "You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara."

She grinned. "Thank you."

"Goodness had nothing to do with it." Without looking, the Time Lords took each other's hands, not really thinking about it.

 **A/N: I must say, I love the moment the Doctor emerges from the TARDIS to face down the monsters.**


	19. The New Forest

**The New Forest**

Adelaide was alone in the console room because the Doctor had gone off looking for one particular device that he needed to fix something on the console. She was sitting and reading in the chair that had quickly started to become her designated chair in the upper level of the console room - the Doctor glared at anyone else who dared sit in it.

She looked up when someone knocked on the TARDIS door, moving down to open it. There was a little girl in what she was fairly certain was the Coal Hill uniform. "Hello?"

"I'm lost," the girl said. "Please, can you help me?"

But Adelaide got a bit distracted by the fact that it appeared they'd landed in a forest...after the Time Lords were meant to be parked in Trafalgar Square. "Are those trees?"

"I need the Doctor. Are you the Doctor? Please. Something's chasing me."

Adelaide stepped back. "Come in." She turned. "Doctor!" She looked back down to the girl. "Yes, it is bigger on the inside than the outside."

She shrugged. "I just thought it was supposed to be bigger on the inside, so I didn't say anything."

Adelaide frowned at her. "Most people are confused by that."

"I find everything confusing, nearly. So, I don't say anything. That's how come I'm in the woods. I thought Miss Oswald told me to find the Doctor. But it wasn't her. It was just in my head."

"You're with Miss Oswald?"

"Mr. Pink. I was in his group. Everyone says they're in love with each other."

"People should really learn to stop assuming how anyone feels about someone else," Adelaide mumbled, coming to a stop by the console. "I take it you're also not saying anything about the fact you're surprised I knew about Miss Oswald?"

She shrugged. "Everyone seems to know everything about everything, apart from me."

"Don't worry, it's impossible to know everything. For example, I don't know why when the terrestrial navigation starts up in this TARDIS, it closes down all the other systems."

"You should ask somebody who knows."

"Sadly, the only other member of my species left has no idea either." Adelaide turned to the hallway again, hitting a button on the console to make certain her voice transmitted to wherever the Doctor was. "Doctor! Come here!" She returned to the console, setting them into motion again, but the TARDIS stopped almost immediately.

"You have reached your destination."

Adelaide glanced at the girl. "What's your name?"

"Maebh."

"Where are we right now, Maebh?"

"The middle of London."

"The middle of London is in the middle of a forest?"

Maebh nodded, taking Adelaide's hand. "Come and see." She pulled the Time Lady out of the TARDIS, pointing up at the base of a statue that Adelaide hadn't noticed the first time she'd opened the door. "Nelson's Column. Do you like it?"

"The monument?"

"Do you like the forest being in Trafalgar Square? I think it's lovely."

The TARDIS door opened again behind them and the Doctor hung out the frame. "You called?"

"This is Maebh, she's part of Mr. Pink's class. Told by voices in her head to find the Doctor."

"Trees?"

Adelaide pointed back at the statue base. "We're in the middle of London." Her phone rang. "Mind Maebh, please." She stepped away from them as the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. "Yes?"

"You two are always showing me amazing things," Clara said. "Well, I, Adelaide, have finally got something amazing to show you."

"Does that amazing thing happen to be the brand new forest?"

"Brand new forest?"

"The forest that's covering London." Clara sighed. "Why don't you come here with Mr. Pink and collect Maebh, and then we can work on finding the source of the brand new forest?"

"Maebh? What's Maebh doing with you? Where are you?"

"Trafalgar Square. She's fine, don't worry."

"Will you bring her over?"

The Doctor seemed to be able to hear what Clara said over Adelaide's phone, as he stepped up to address the human. "No, we can't bring her over. We're Time Lords, not childminders."

"You've got a spaceship. All we've got are Oyster cards."

"And we've got a global rapid afforestation crisis to deal with."

Adelaide sighed. "We'll wait here for you, Clara. Maebh will be fine."

The Doctor climbed onto the lion's plinth as Adelaide hung up, scanning the trees, and Maebh took out her phone to watch something. "Why would there be no reading?"

Adelaide turned to the side, scanning the trees with her own sonic. "Because they're actually made of wood?"

He shrugged. "No circuits. No mechanism. Wood." He jumped back down.

"What's this for?" Maebh asked both of them, looking between the devices in their hands.

"This is a sonic screwdriver and that's a sonic pen. They interact with any form of communication you care to mention. Sadly, trees have no moving parts and don't communicate."

Maebh shrugged. "They communicate a bit, though."

The Doctor frowned. "What?"

"Otherwise they wouldn't all grow at the same time, would they."

"So, what, do you think that's how spring begins? With a group message on Tree Facebook? Do you think they send texts to each other?"

Maebh just shrugged again. "You don't need a phone to communicate, do you. I haven't phoned home and I know my mum is worried about me."

The Time Lords exchanged a look. Maebh was technically wrong, but she did have a point. Trees were technically living things and they had all, somehow, actually grown at the exact same time. Worthy of an investigation.

They stepped a bit more into the trees, frowning at them, but it didn't take long for there to be a rumble that had them both rushing back to where they'd left the TARDIS. Clara and Danny had arrived, surrounded by the rest of their students.

"No rings," one of the girls said, showing a branch to Danny and Clara. "Trees usually have rings to tell you how old they are. This one's got no rings. Why's that then, sir?"

"The rings mark the years of growth," the Doctor said. "One ring for each year. This grew up overnight. That whole tree is the result of just one night's growth, and they're still growing."

"Everyone, this is the Doctor and Adelaide," Clara told the students, "and they're going to sort everything out. Isn't that right, Doctor? It's what they do."

"Well," the Doctor shrugged, "having looked at things, I think, probably, the answer to that is no."

"He always says that," Clara waved a hand. "She's very clever, she always figures it out."

"Oh, yes, she is." The Doctor pointed at Adelaide, grinning. "Very clever. Extremely clever. The cleverest in any universe..." he turned back to the students. "But what use is clever against trees? They don't listen to reason, to logic. You can't plead with them. You can't lie to them. They have no moving parts, no circuits. This is a natural event."

Danny shook his head. "How can it be natural for a tree to grow in one night?"

"Exactly what they said about the Ice Age. How can whole glaciers just pop up out of nowhere? Well, they just did. That's how this planet grows – a series of catastrophes. Farewell to the Ice Age. Welcome to the Tree Age. Possibly. When the Ice Age was here, you lot managed to cook mammoth. Now there's a forest, you'll just have to eat nuts."

"I can't eat nuts," a boy said. "I've got an allergy."

"Don't worry. It's a thing he does. He pretends he's not interested and then he has an idea. She's theorizing and he's playing for time."

Adelaide frowned. "Time."

"See?" Clara nodded at her. "Clever kicking in."

"A tree is, essentially, a time machine. You can plant an acorn in 1795 and in 2016, there's an oak tree that has a small bit of 1795 left inside. It's impossible to create an overnight forest with 'extra special fertilizer'."

The Doctor nodded. "You have to mess with the fabric of time. And communicate with trees." The two Time Lords hurried back into the TARDIS, Clara leading Danny and the children inside right after them.

"So you're saying it's an act of aggression?"

"By trees?" the Doctor scoffed.

"Er," a girl said, the one who'd had the broken branch earlier, "trees clean the air."

Clara pointed at her. "Exactly. Well done, Ruby. Someone or something who's trying to scrub the atmosphere before colonizing or invading." The expression on the Doctor's face seemed to register. "Ah, yes, Doctor, Adelaide, ahem. This is Coal Hill Year Eight, Gifted and Talented Group."

"What are the round bits for?" a boy asked, pointing at the walls.

"Ask your teacher." He crossed his arms. "Come on! Down from there! Hey!" he moved forward, gesturing for a group of children to move back. "Away from the console. Come on. That's an antique. Get away from there! Don't touch that! Haven't any of you been struck by the fact that it's...look, it's bigger on the inside?"

"There wasn't a forest," Ruby said, crossing her arms. "Then there was a forest. Nothing surprises us anymore."

"Regardless," Adelaide said, "stay away from the console." She pulled out her teacher voice for that, strong enough that a majority of the children did actually back away. "Now, these trees appeared all at once. It most likely wasn't a coincidence; I've never encountered an arboreal coincidence before."

The Doctor nodded. "Something, someone, has coordinated this. To coordinate, you need to communicate." He flicked things on the console. "Every communication channel on the TARDIS is open, and nothing." He looked around at them, his gaze landing on a pile of exercise books that Clara had left in the TARDIS – Adelaide hadn't been happy about the mess – that Danny had also noticed. "Except..." he took the book Danny had been looking at. "Let me see that."

"Homework books," Danny frowned, looking at the rest of them. "Why are these here?"

He showed Adelaide the drawing – a forest with an angry sun – before looking at the name at the front. "Maebh Arden." He addressed the children. "Maebh Arden. Which one is Maebh Arden? Which one's Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh?" as he said the name, he looked at each child individually. "Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh?"

"Oh, my God," Ruby gasped. "Maebh's gone! Maebh's lost in the forest. Maebh's going to die!"

"Ruby, that's enough!" Clara looked to the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide?"

"We've got to find her!"

"Yes, I know that we have to find her." Clara took a breath. "Listen to me. Her sister went missing last year. She's on medication. The child is barely functioning. She hears voices. She's very vulnerable."

"What do the voices say?" Adelaide asked.

"I don't know. She takes tablets and they stop."

"You people," the Doctor sighed. "You never learn. If a child is speaking, listen to it."

"Oh," Danny scoffed, "like you listened to her?"

The Doctor turned on a scanner, Adelaide standing beside him, and they watched a large solar flare. "He's right. She was trying to tell us something and we ignored her. Maebh Arden is tuned to a different channel. She can lead us to the source, to the heart of the forest. We have to listen to her. We have to find her."

"Not everything can be fixed with a screwdriver or a pen," Clara reminded them. "They're not magic wands."

"She has a phone," Adelaide told her.

Clara blinked. "Well, yes, she does."

"And I presume you have her number."

"Er, yep..." Clara took out her phone and Adelaide soniced it.

"Maebh Arden. Five hundred yards south-east of here." She glanced at the Doctor. "We'll go get her." After all, a whole forest appearing all at once was about as textbook of a mystery as they'd ever encountered.

"I'll go with them," Danny said, stepping forward.

"Oh, I can go," Clara waved a hand, coming up beside the Time Lords. "You can..."

"You haven't seen them for months?"

The Time Lords left the TARDIS then, leaving the two humans to discuss the fact that Clara had yet to tell Danny the truth, though the Doctor did pop back in almost immediately as the thought of a bunch of children left in his TARDIS occurred to him. "Hey! Do not. Touch. Anything." He narrowed his eyes. "Anything. Okay?"

Ruby nodded. "Okay."

The Doctor stepped back out and, a moment later, Clara joined them. "Gifted and talented?" he asked Clara as they started walking through the forest, following the phone Adelaide had returned to Clara. "Really?"

"Furious, fearful, tongue-tied," Clara said. "They're all superpowers if you use them properly. Are they going to be all right?" Nearby, the traffic lights went out.

"They're in the TARDIS, the safest place on the planet..." but the rumble started up again, the entire group leaping to the side as a statue came crashing to the ground, just nearly hitting them. "If this is an invasion..."

"What?"

"It's over. They're here, they've won." The Doctor frowned, helping Adelaide stand. "What do they want?" The two of them started walking again, but Clara's drawn in breath behind them made them turn again.

"Look behind us. The path we just walked down. It's overgrown already."

Adelaide frowned at something on the ground, picking up a pink phone. "Clara, I found Maebh's phone."

Clara rushed over. "Why would she put her phone down?"

"Doesn't want to be followed?" Adelaide offered. "Left it as a clue so that we'd know where she was going?"

The Doctor pointed at her. "Trail of breadcrumbs. Hansel and Gretel."

Clara stepped closer. "I'm actually frightened. I never get frightened. Why am I frightened?"

"You just lost a little girl," the Doctor reminded her.

"Yes, that is a worry, but I know you'll find her. No, no, no. This is not a worry, this is a dread." She strode forward. "Maebh!"

The Doctor followed, the Time Lords moving to hold hands as they continued. "You're pursuing a little lost girl through a mysterious forest. The path has disappeared. You find yourself with a beautifully clever woman and a foolish..."

"Any minute now we're going to find a gingerbread cottage with a cannibal witch inside," Clara mumbled. "Maebh!"

"Exactly. The forest. It's in all the stories that kept you awake at night. The forest is mankind's nightmare."

A little bit further they found a bright red pencil case. "Maebh's?" Adelaide asked Clara, who nodded. "Clever girl."

Clara hurried forward, past a bus stop, and pushed aside a branch only to be confronted by someone in a hazmat suit. "Get back!" the man shouted, waving a hand. "We're burning here. Stay back!"

"We're looking for a little girl."

"Stay back. We're about to burn." The three of them watched as one of the other people with him directed a flamethrower at one of the trees, engulfing it in fire. "Good job!" But when the flamethrower went off, the tree was perfectly fine. "What's going on?" the men stepped together, examining the tree and their equipment.

The time travelers continued on. "Trees control the oxygen on this planet," Adelaide said, speaking as they walked.

The Doctor nodded. "They withhold it, they smother the fire. What sort of forest is clover? What sort of forest has its own in-built fire extinguisher?"

"What do they want?"

"Why now?"

Clara frowned at him. "What do you mean, why now?"

"The whole natural order is turning against this planet. But why? Why now?"

Clara shrugged. "Well, what else?"

The Doctor pulled Maebh's workbook from his pocket, finding the drawing he'd seen before to show to Clara. "How did she know this?"

"What is it?"

"This is a massive solar flare headed for Earth, like the one that destroyed the Bank of Karabraxos." He frowned at it. "I've got an entire TARDIS and I didn't notice this. But she knew. How?"

Clara saw the name on the book. "This is Maebh's. Where did you get this?"

"You left your marking in the TARDIS," Adelaide told her. "I was going to make you clean it up."

Clara sighed. "Oh, great, right, well, that's just brilliant, isn't it? You don't think Danny saw this, do you?"

"He was the one who opened it to this page," Adelaide told her, speaking without really thinking because of the situation.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was frowning at Clara. "I've just informed you that a solar flare is going to wipe out your planet. You're worried about a row with your boyfriend. How did she know this? She even put the date on it!"

"I always make them date their homework."

"Use your eyes. It's today's date."

Clara frowned, noticing it. "Well, there must be a way?"

"They want something. They're saying something. If there is a way, the way is Maebh Arden."

"Okay, you know they're not really gifted and talented, don't you? I just tell them that to make them feel good."

The Doctor waved a hand. "She's lost someone. People who've lost someone, they're always listening, always looking, always hoping. So, they notice more. They hear more."

They all froze when a wolf howled somewhere in the distance. "Was that a howl?" A second howl. "Was that a wolf? No. That is impossible. We're in London."

"London has a zoo, Clara," Adelaide reminded her. "A zoo with a pack of wolves, whose barriers and gates have almost definitely been destroyed by the trees."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, wolves are not impossible. Stick to the path, Red Riding Hood."

"There is no path."

The rest of the pack seemed to take up the howl. "Then we're lunch."

 **A/N: Adelaide got a chance to pull out her teacher voice again :)**


	20. The New Word

**The New Word**

Someone, a little girl, screamed. "Maebh!" Clara ran in the direction, the Time Lords following a moment later. They were forced to stop at a wrought iron fence, Maebh and three wolves on the other side. "Maebh! Doctor, give me a boost so I can pull her over." As Clara spoke, Maebh ran to the side. "Maebh? Maebh!" the girl went to a gate and hurried through it to their side.

"Maebh," the Doctor bent to be closer to her height. "You came looking for me. You didn't..." Maebh started to wave her hands in the air as though she were trying to swat insects no one else could see. "Maebh, Maebh, you didn't just stumble into the TARDIS. Tell me what you know."

"Doctor..." Clara called.

"This is important."

"Yes, but I think even Adelaide said that we should deal with the wolves first." As she said that, Adelaide did step up beside Clara.

"These are zoo wolves," the Doctor waved her off. "They're not even used to hunting."

"Doctor," Adelaide said, making him straighten as the wolves bared their teeth. "We need to look big."

He nodded. "So, stay still. Stay together. Look big. Look big like a big four-headed, eight-legged scary thing!" But the wolves, rather than continuing to growl, leaped over the fence and ran off into the woods behind them. "Ha ha! Told you they were rubbish. Those wolves are terrified."

Clara froze. "What are wolves frightened of?" The question was answered by a growl as a tiger walked up to the fence, roaring. The four of them started to back away, but then there was a light flashing the tiger's face, making it retreat. The group turned to see Danny, with the torch, and the rest of the students, who cheered.

"Mr. Pink!" Clara said, grinning. "Why, thank you very much."

Danny grinned too. "Ah, no problem. Just decided it was best not to leave you alone with them." He nodded at the students. "They've worked well together. Noticeable increase in confidence and energy levels."

As he spoke, Maebh started to wave her arms again, making both Time Lords look at her. "Well done," Clara said, not noticing yet. "And for saving us from a tiger, too."

Danny glanced at Maebh. "Er, has she had her medication yet?"

"Oh. No, I..."

The Doctor held out a hand. "No, no. Not her medication. We don't want to shut her up. We want to know what she knows." The Doctor knelt before the girl again. "Maebh, what's the..." he mimicked her hand motions. "Maebh, what is this? What is this?"

"Apart from being almost savaged by a tiger and abducted by a Scotsman, she's allowed any nervous tics she likes, okay?" Danny snapped.

"This is not a nervous tic," Adelaide told him. "This is react..."

"Please!" Ruby interrupted. "Just give her her tablets. She's been in a state since her sister went missing."

Maebh turned and ran, everyone hurrying after her. "Maebh! Maebh! Maebh!"

"You won't find your sister out there," Ruby called, though it did nothing to stop the girl.

They followed her to a clearing surrounded by cobweb covered trees, Maebh pausing in the center. "It's coming," Maebh mumbled. "It's coming for everyone, and I can't unthink it."

The Doctor knelt before her again, Adelaide standing beside him. "Maebh. Maebh, this forest is communicating. With you. Nobody else. No technology can hear what it's saying, but you can. Tell us what it wants. Where it came from. Just tell us who did this."

"It was me. I did this. I did the trees."

"No, Maebh. You didn't make a global forest appear overnight. How could you do that?"

"Thoughts come to me," Maebh told them. "Ever since Annabel went missing, I look for her everywhere. I don't find her, but I find thoughts. The big forest was one. I thought everyone would love it. The thoughts! The thoughts! They go so fast."

"This is stressing me now," one of the boys said. "When I get stressed, I forget my anger management."

Clara stepped forward, frowning. "Maebh, can you see something that we can't see?"

Maebh frowned. "Nearly. Too fast. Everywhere."

"Everything's subject to gravity," the Doctor said, pulling out his sonic. "If I can create a little local increase..."

Danny moved forward. "No. You're not experimenting on..."

But he soniced Maebh anyway, making small sparks of light appear around Maebh. She calmed. "They're lovely!" she frowned. "They don't like it when you're holding them. They want you to let them go."

"Who are they?" Adelaide asked.

"We are Here." Maebh's voice shifted, going deeper, as though it were someone else speaking. "Here, always, since the beginning and until the end."

"Here? That's it?"

The deeper voice overpowered Maebh's own. "We are the green shoots that grow between the cracks, the grass that grows over the mass graves. After your wars are over, we will still be Here. We are the life that prevails."

"Why now? Why are you here now?"

"We hear the call and we come, as we came before to the great North Forest, where we lie still in a great circle. As we came to the vast Southern Forest."

"Who is calling you now?"

"The sun that creates. The sun that destroys. You are hurting us. Let us go."

The Doctor frowned. "You sent for me. The girl came looking for me, and only me. Why? Why me?"

"We did not send. Pain. Did not send for you. We don't know you. We were here before you and will be here after you."

The Doctor flicked off the sonic, releasing the lights and letting Maebh fall to her knees, him immediately at her side. "Maebh, you came looking for the Doctor. Think. Who sent you for the Doctor?"

"It was just a thought. It was just a thought that came. I think it came from Miss." Danny looked at Clara for that. "They've gone. Why does everything have to go?"

The Doctor stood, moving in unison with Adelaide to the edge of the circle, and Clara joined them. "This really is going to happen, isn't it?"

"Stars implode," Adelaide reminded her. "Planets grow cold. Catastrophe is the metabolism of the universe."

"I can fight monsters," the Doctor nodded. "I can't fight physics."

"Why would trees want to kill us? We love trees."

"You've been chopping them down for furniture for centuries. If that's love, no wonder they're calling down fire from the heavens."

Clara shook her head. "But we saw the future. Lots of futures. Earth's futures."

"They're about to be erased."

She looked between the Time Lords. "If you can't save them all, save who you can. The TARDIS, it's a lifeboat, isn't it? Not everybody has to die." She didn't wait for the Time Lords to nod, turning back to address the students. "Everyone, back to Trafalgar Square, now!"

|C-S|

When they returned to where they'd left the TARDIS – Danny having led the students in a chant for the walk – they found it almost completely covered in ivy. "Right, come on, team," Danny said, bringing all of the students to help him remove the greenery.

But Clara grabbed both Time Lords arms and pulled them apart. "When they're done, you need to get in your box and go."

The Doctor nodded. "We're all going. We're taking the kids."

She shook her head. "Taking them where? What are you going to do with them? Leave them on an asteroid? Find a space academy for the gifted and talented? They just want their mums and dads, and they're never going to stop wanting them."

Adelaide's expression hardened in the way only her's could. "And Danny would never leave those children." Clara nodded. The children cheered as they uncovered the TARDIS. "We can save you."

"I don't want you to."

The Doctor frowned. "What, you don't want to live?"

"Of course I want to live. I just..."

"What?"

Clara closed her eyes. "Don't make me say it."

"Say what?"

"I don't want to be the last of my kind."

The Time Lords took each other's hands again. "Then why did you bring us all here?" he asked Clara.

"Because it's the only way to get you" Clara nodded at the Doctor "back to the TARDIS, make you think you're saving someone. Well, you know what, Doctor, Adelaide? This time, the human race is saving you." She strode to the TARDIS – which the children and Danny had all stepped away from – and unlocked the door. "Make it worthwhile."

"This is our world, too," the Doctor told her, speaking low, speaking for Adelaide even though he knew he shouldn't. "We walk your Earth, we breathe your air."

"You saved me from the Time War," Adelaide added. Earth and humans had never been a place of particular interest to her before, but after she'd been Caroline...she couldn't help but have the smallest amount of attachment.

"And on behalf of this world, you're very welcome. Now, go. Save the next one."

The Time Lords stepped back, looking to the side as Maebh still stood close by, though she looked far happier than when they'd first seen her. "Maebh," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry that we couldn't help you."

But Maebh smiled. "You helped me loads. I thought it was all my fault. I feel much better now. Are you going to get rid of the forest?"

Clara forced a smile, taking Maebh's hand. "Hard to get rid of a flame-proof forest, Maebh, eh? Come on." She led the girl away, leaving the Time Lords to enter the TARDIS.

"This can't be right," the Doctor said as they closed the door. "There has to be another way."

"They mentioned other forests," Adelaide mumbled, moving up to the scanner. "The Northern and the Southern forest. The Here have done this before."

He nodded, both of them pausing at the scanner which still showed the growing solar flare. "They said the sun was calling them."

"A flame-proof forest called by the sun." Adelaide paused. "A flame-proof forest."

His eyes widened. "A flame-proof forest!"

Oh, Adelaide had gotten slow, hadn't she?

The Doctor ran back out of the TARDIS, calling for Clara as Adelaide quickly checked points in Earth's history...and found they were right. "Clara! Come back here! Come back! Clara! Mr. Pink! Maebh! All of you! Quick, quick! Come back. Come back. Come on! Maebh, quick. Good girl, good girl. Come on!" he led them all into the TARDIS, depositing all the humans on the steps before stepping back up next to Adelaide. "It's there on the screen, look. Big solar flare headed this way. A thousand kilometers a second. Coronal mass ejection. Geomagnetic storm. It's huge. It's brewing up a solar wind big enough to blow this whole planet away." But the children looked back at him with blank faces. "We..."

"Just you, Doctor."

"I assumed your teachers have mentioned this?"

Clara crossed her arms, looking some combination of annoyed and curious about the fact the Time Lords had summoned them all back. "I thought it would spoil an otherwise enjoyable walk."

Adelaide touched the Doctor's shoulder. "Thankfully, almost this exact situation has occurred before, and Earth and humanity came out of it unharmed. The Tunguska Blast, 1908. It should have blown the planet off its axis, but it just knocked tens of thousands of trees over. Curuca in Brazil, the same situation. Now, what do all these have in common?"

"They're really, really scaring us?" Ruby said.

"Trees. Whenever there's been a planet-threatening, extra-terrestrial impact, there have been trees. Massive forests filling the atmosphere with oxygen. Filling it like a massive, highly inflammable airbag, so that when the danger arrives..."

"Everyone dies."

Adelaide pointed at him. "The opposite. The impact burns off the excess oxygen. I expect there are rather hectic weather and strange sunsets for a few days, but apart from that, everything is fine."

The Doctor nodded, Adelaide finally allowing him to speak. "We were wrong. The trees are not your enemy. They're your shield. They've been saving you since forever. Protecting you from everything that space can throw at you."

Clara stood. "The wide ring. The red ring. In the museum, Ruby saw a cross-section of a tree. One of the rings was wider than the others, and red."

Her turn to get pointed at by Adelaide. "Atmospheric dust, captured in the trees. The fingerprint of an asteroid."

The Doctor grinned. "Happy Red Ring Day."

Ruby shook her head. "I don't get it. If they're good, then why are we chopping them down?"

Danny stood too. "The Government are sending out defoliating teams. They're dropping chemicals on them right now."

The Time Lord sighed. "What is it with you people? You hear voices, you want to shut them up. The trees come to save you, you want to chop them down."

"Or you think you need to save the world when it's already saving itself."

He glanced at Clara. "We did admit that we were wrong." They turned to the console. "Excellent. Mobile networks are still operative." The Time Lords looked at each other, nodding. "We are going to call everyone on Earth and tell them to leave the trees alone."

Maebh stepped forward. "Can I do it? I started it. I should finish it."

Adelaide smiled. "Class project. Save the Earth."

So, the students sprawled on the floor as Maebh wrote her script, offering their suggestions. While they worked, the Time Lords ensured that the message would get through.

After a few minutes, Maebh stood. "Okay. And I think that's it." Adelaide gave the girl her phone and the Doctor flicked a switch, ringing every phone around the world. "Essential services have been disrupted due to an unexpected forest. We'd like to reassure you that the situation will be rectified very soon. Please don't be scared. And please don't chop, spray, or harm the trees. They're here to help. Be less scared. Be more trusting. Oh, and Annabel Arden, please come home." When she nodded, the Doctor flicked the switch again to end the transmission, rubbing his hands together.

"Okay, who would like to witness a once in a billion years solar event at close quarters?"

But Maebh spotted something on the scanner, which had switched to showing Trafalgar Square. "Mum! There's my mum!" she ran out of the ship, the rest of the children following and the two adults shortly after them.

It was only the Time Lords in the TARDIS, in the end.

"I hope we're right," the Doctor mumbled, leaning against the console. "We were going to leave Earth to burn."

"I was going to leave Earth to burn," Adelaide corrected.

"You were the one who realized what was happening."

"Because I wanted to solve the mystery." She crossed her arms. "Clara, humanity, had made a choice. If we'd already had an explanation for the trees, I would have left them."

"I don't think you would have." He looked to Adelaide. "Maybe you would have, in one of your earlier regenerations, but I don't think you would have now."

She smiled. "Maybe you're right."

"I'm always right." He took one of her hands, kissing it.

"You're the foolish one."

"But you're the clever one. And I'm the one who lo..." the Doctor caught himself before he finished the word, but Adelaide was well aware of what he'd been about to say.

Well aware of the fact that they'd never said that word to each other yet. Not really.

They'd said it about each other jokingly, to companions and people they encountered. The Doctor, in particular, enjoyed saying that various aspects about his personality were the reason Adelaide loved him, even if she'd never said it. They'd just known.

They'd always just known.

The Time Lords had always been extremely terrible about having talks when they needed to have talks, saying things that needed to be said.

They'd kissed and they'd held each other and they'd trusted each other beyond belief and they'd known, somehow, exactly how the other had always felt, but they'd never said it.

The Doctor had never said that he loved Adelaide – or Caroline, for that matter – but he'd always known it. Always known that was the thing that he kept deciding to feel for her, the thing he felt every single time he looked at her.

It was love, even if he'd never given it that word.

And Adelaide had always known. In each regeneration so far she'd had a time when she'd hated it, when she'd tried to deny her ability to feel love, but she'd always proven herself wrong. She'd always reminded herself that what she felt when the Doctor looked at her was right. It was good.

It was love, and it was good.

This was love, and this was good.

And even now, they didn't need to say it to know.

|C-S|

When Clara finally returned, the Time Lords brought the TARDIS to sit in space to watch the solar flare strike Earth, just wanting to see it to know that they were right.

If the human knew what had occurred between the Time Lords while she'd been off having her own moment of realization with Danny, she said nothing, though she did smile at them particularly widely.

This was a good day for all of them.

"I hope you're right," Clara mumbled, leaning in the doorway. "It would be slightly awkward if the world was destroyed at this point."

They watched as the flare reached Earth, igniting just the excess oxygen in the atmosphere and not harming the people or the planet below. "There goes the planet-sized airbag," the Doctor nodded. "That's the trees, harvesting the solar fire."

|C-S|

They brought Clara back to her living room, watching the forest vanish in golden sparkles from Earth's surface instead of above. "That is amazing," Clara said, shaking her head. "How will they explain this tomorrow?"

"You'll all forget it ever happened."

"We are not going to forget an overnight forest," she scoffed.

"You forgot the last times," Adelaide reminded her.

The Doctor nodded. "You remembered the fear and you put it into fairy stories. It's a human superpower, forgetting. If you remembered how things felt, you'd have stopped having wars. And stopped having babies."

The golden light continued to spread across the surface of the planet, restoring everything to how it had been before.

 **A/N: Aw, how sweet :) Now everything is happy and lovely and there's nothing terrible that could ever happen to split them apart ;)**


	21. To Hell

**To Hell**

Adelaide had just stepped back into the console when her phone rang. The Doctor glanced over at her as she answered it. "Hello, Clara."

"Hey!" Clara greeted, an aspect of her voice strange enough that Adelaide frowned.

"What's happened?"

"Oh, nothing. You know, same old, same old."

"Then why have you called?" she came to a stop at the console beside the Doctor. "What do you need?"

"I just...I have something that I need to ask you, in person. Can you come here?"

"Of course, Clara. We'll be there shortly." Adelaide hung up.

The Doctor frowned. "What was that?"

"Something's wrong with Clara."

The console made a noise as it finally caught up with relative Earth news. Danny Pink was dead.

"Has a companion ever lost someone while they've been traveling with you?" Adelaide asked the Doctor.

"She's going to do something she'll regret." He looked at Adelaide. "I have a plan."

|C-S|

When Clara entered the TARDIS, both Time Lords glanced at her, the Doctor stepping to the side to put away a bit of machinery. "Start her up."

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Where are we going?"

"Away."

"From?"

"Just away."

Adelaide shrugged. "Not to argue with that concept, but previously when we've asked that you've replied with 'work' or 'kids' or 'dishes' or 'dullness'." As she spoke, Clara moved beneath the console, appearing to just be wandering.

The Doctor nodded. "So what's happened?"

"A volcano!" Clara called back up.

"I'm sorry?"

"I've never seen an active volcano, do you know one?"

The Time Lord made a face. "What's so great about seeing a volcano? It's just a sort of leaky mountain."

Clara returned, continuing on her stroll and dipping her hand into the Doctor's and Adelaide's pockets as she passed them. "I've never seen lava."

"It's rubbish."

"Prove it." Clara went up to the upper level of the console, flicking through a book. "Do you still have those sleep patch things?"

"You can't have one," the Doctor told her.

Clara shrugged. "I'm having trouble sleeping."

"You still can't have one." The Time Lords turned to the console, setting them into flight, and neatly turning their attention away from Clara as she found a box of those exact sleep patches.

"Can I have one?"

"No, you can't have one." Clara walked up between them as the Time Lords paused at the same point in the console. "So, volcano. What's so good about lava?"

In unison, Clara pressed a sleep patch to each of the Time Lords' necks.

|C-S|

They jolted awake in unison again outside the TARDIS, surrounded by lava and smoke. Clara was standing a bit away from them both, close to a ledge. "Clara?" the Doctor asked, still sounding disoriented.

"It's on your necks." She held out her hand. "You told me once what it would take to destroy a TARDIS key. That's what's so good about lava." She gestured with her fisted hand. "All seven. From all of your hiding places." She picked one from the bunch.

"Clara," Adelaide said, one hand out, "I would recommend being extremely careful with that."

But Clara just threw it into the lava, her expression empty in a way that was, somehow, the complete opposite of how Adelaide's would go. Adelaide could separate from emotion to make a logical decision, to address a situation that needed addressing, but the emotion would still eventually be there for her to address. It wasn't often that she did it to hide from something she felt, to suppress something. At least, not intentionally. "Do I have your attention?"

The Time Lords nodded, but it was the Doctor who spoke. "Yes."

"Good."

"No. Not good, Clara."

"Danny Pink."

The Time Lords nodded again. "Yeah?"

"Is dead."

"And?"

Clara frowned. "Seriously?"

"And?" the Doctor repeated.

"And fix it. Change it. Change what happened. Save him. Bring him back." Clara held up another key.

"No."

Clara threw it away. "Five left. Every time you say no to me, I will throw another key down there. Do we understand each other?"

"Well, we understand you. Let's not get carried away."

"Time can be rewritten."

"With precision," the Doctor said, the topic a dangerous one for the Time Lords Victorious, a fact Clara was well aware of. "With great care. And not today. But you know that of course, otherwise, you wouldn't be threatening us."

"Did you just say no?"

"If we change the events that brought you here," Adelaide told her, speaking carefully, speaking despite the fact that she wasn't, as she said often, a 'time scientist', "you will never come here and ask us to change those events. It would create a paradox loop. The timeline would disintegrate. The universe would. Your timeline. Your universe."

"And yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes. I did just say no." The Doctor nodded to the fire. "Throw away the key."

Clara narrowed her eyes. "I have seen you change time. I have seen you break any rule you want."

"We know when we can, we know when we can't. Throw the key."

"I know what you're doing." Clara pointed at him. "You're trying to take control."

"I am in control. Throw away the key. Do as you are told."

"No!"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, either do as you're told or stop threatening us. There really isn't a third option here."

Clara shook her head at him. "Do you know what, Doctor? When it comes to taking control, you really are out of your depth." In one motion, she threw all but one key into the lava. "One last chance. And I don't care about the rules, I don't give a damn about paradoxes. Save Danny. Bring him back or I swear you will never step inside your TARDIS again."

"No."

"Do as you are told."

"No." That time, the Time Lords said it in unison.

"Say it again so I know you mean it."

"No!"

Clara had started to shake. "I'm not kidding."

"Neither are we."

"I will do it!"

The Doctor shook his head. "Clara, my Clara, our Clara, I don't think you will."

But Clara did it, dropping the last key. "Oh, I'd say I'm sorry but I'd do it again." The reality of her actions seemed to sink in, Clara falling to her knees and crying. "I'd do it again!" she looked at the Time Lords, who were just watching her. "Well, what are you doing? Why are you just standing there? Do you understand what I have just done?"

"Look in your hand," Adelaide told her.

"There's nothing in my hand."

"Clara, look in your hand."

She waved a hand at the lava. "The keys, they're gone. They're down there. They're gone."

"Clara, look in your hand, now."

"There's nothing in my hand."

"Yes, Clara, there is. Look." Clara finally did as Adelaide said, finding a sleep patch on her palm. "There is no possible universe where that would have worked on us."

The Doctor stepped forward. "They're not sleep patches. They induce a dream state." He pulled the patch from her palm, returning them to the TARDIS. "Makes you very suggestible." He bent, picking up all the TARDIS keys that had just been safely dropped on the floor. "We allowed the whole situation to play out just as you planned. I was curious about how far you would go."

Clara swallowed, standing. "Well, now you know."

"Yeah. Now we know."

"I love him."

The Doctor scanned her, mumbling the results to himself. "Yes, you're quite the mess of chemicals, aren't you?" they stepped back to the console, leaving Clara where she stood.

"So, what now? What do we do now? You and me, what happens now?" the Time Lords weren't looking at her, flicking a few switches to pilot the TARDIS. "Doctor? Adelaide?"

"Go to hell." They still didn't look at her as the TARDIS landed.

Clara nodded. "Fair enough. Absolutely fair enough." She turned to the door, ready to leave.

"Clara?" the Doctor called, making her stop. "You asked what we're going to do. I told you. We're going to hell."

"Or," Adelaide added, "wherever it is people go when they die. If there is anywhere."

"Whatever it is, we're going to go there and we're going to find Danny. And if it is in any way possible, we're going to bring him home. Almost every culture in the universe has some concept of an afterlife."

Adelaide nodded. "I had always meant to look around and see if I could find one. Always been curious."

Clara frowned. "You're going to help me?"

The Doctor nodded. "Well, why wouldn't we help you?"

"Because of what I just did. I just..."

"You betrayed us," he said, rather bluntly. "Betrayed our trust, you betrayed our friendship, you betrayed everything that we've ever stood for. You let me down!"

"Then why are you helping me?"

"Why? Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?" he made a face at her. "Stop it with the eyes. Don't do that with the eyes. How do you do that anyway?" he gestured at her. "It's like they inflate. Cut out the whining while you're at it. We've got work to do." He paused, taking Adelaide's hand for a moment as he stepped forward. "This is it, Clara, one of those moments."

"What moments?"

"The darkest day. The blackest hour. Chin up, shoulders back. Let's see what we're made of." He grinned and turned, joining Adelaide at the console again. "Switching off the safeguards, turning off the nav-com."

"We did this before," Adelaide reminded her. "Plugged you into the TARDIS telepathic interface."

Clara nodded. "We ended up all over Danny's timestream."

She pointed at her. "Because you and he are linked. Aligned. Your timestreams are intertwined, they intersect at certain points. If he's anywhere, the link should hold."

The Doctor turned to the human again. "Give me your hands."

"Doctor..."

"We're in a hurry."

"I don't deserve a friend like you." Clara looked to Adelaide. "Like either of you."

"Clara, I'm terribly sorry, but we're exactly what you deserve." The Doctor put Clara's hands into the telepathic interface, stepping back. "Think about Danny. Think about the man you lost. Let it hurt. Let it burn. But don't bleat. Don't ask – why him? Forget all that. Ask one question. Just one. Ask – where is Danny Pink now? Where is he now?" After a moment of Clara focusing, the time rotor began to move. "Well, the TARDIS thinks he's somewhere."

After a moment, the TARDIS settled to a stop. "Where are we?"

"Nav-com's offline," the Doctor reminded her. "We'll have to do this old school."

"But this is where Danny is?"

"Almost certainly not," Adelaide said. "This is where there's a connection with Danny. This is where it is most likely that your timelines will re-intersect."

He frowned at the human. "And that won't do?"

"What won't?"

"You won't." He gestured at her. "Look at you. We need skeptical, clever, critical. We don't need mopey. It puts years on your face. And what if people see us together? It looks like you've been melted."

Clara frowned. "Are you forgetting why we're here?"

"We're here to get your boyfriend back from the dead, so buck up and give us some attitude." In unison, the Doctor and Clara broke into matching grins.

The group left the TARDIS together. They'd landed between two of the four columns at the base of a staircase, which in turn led to a large urn with an eternal flame. The building was dark, but the Doctor used his sonic as a torch, Adelaide quickly doing the same, and quickly there was enough light that they could see an obelisk with a logo and motto etched on it in gold. They could hear water nearby.

"Fish tanks?" Clara asked.

"In a mausoleum?"

They went up the stairs, the plinth beneath the urn displaying the same logo and motto. "What does that mean?"

"It means those aren't fish tanks."

They went up another set of stairs, coming out into a hallway lined on the right with floor to ceiling tanks. Inside each one was a skeleton sitting on a chair. "Why?" Clara paused in front of one, looking it up and down.

"I don't know."

"Okay, I'm assuming they didn't actually drown in there."

Adelaide paused in front of another. "They were placed there after death. These are their tombs."

"Water tombs," the Doctor nodded, and Adelaide shrugged.

"Some type of fluid, most likely not pure water."

Clara glanced at them. "With chairs?"

"With chairs, yes. Extra comfort for the deceased. It pays to die rich." They continued on down the line, Clara following a moment later.

"Oh, God," she gasped, eyes widening. "Am I going to find Danny now? Is that why the TARDIS brought us here? I don't want to see him like that."

"Good point." The Doctor frowned. "Tombs with windows. Who wants to watch their loved ones rot? Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to keep watch on the dead?"

They kept walking, soon coming upon a lectern with an open empty book on top. The Doctor held his hand out above the pages, making a holographic cube rise up, and he pushed it to the open corridor beyond, turning it into a screen.

The logo flashed, and then text started to scroll, a woman's voice reading it as it went to the accompaniment of some classical music. "3W. Death is not an end. But we can help with that. Ever since 3W encountered the truth about the death experience, we have been working hard to find a better life for the deceased. At 3W, afterlife means aftercare."

"Okay." Clara frowned. "Bit strange?"

"Is it difficult?" Adelaide called.

Clara glanced at her. "Is what difficult?"

"Reading the words back to front." The Time Lady's gaze was fixed on something in the darkness behind the hologram. "Would you mind coming out?"

A woman walked through the hologram, dressed in some sort of Victorian gown and hat. "Hello." She smiled. "I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?"

"Well, there is...er...no immediate hurry." The Doctor, subtly, took a step back. "We're just...er...we're just..."

"Browsing," Clara provided.

He pointed at her. "Yeah, yeah, browsing."

"Please, take all the time you need. At 3W, you always have the rest of your life."

"Oh, good," the Doctor nodded. "That's good to know, Clara, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Great."

"Exactly what is 3W?"

"Apologies. Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package."

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, you know, it's just an unexpected..."

But before he could get another word out, the woman had lunged forward, pushed the Doctor back against the wall, and started to kiss him. All the Doctor could do in his shock was grab at the wall, trying to find some sort of traction.

Adelaide just blinked, feeling slightly frozen in place.

The woman stopped, placing three kisses on the tip of the Doctor's nose before she stepped back with a breath. "Welcome to the 3W Institute."

The Doctor was staring at a spot in front of him quite like he couldn't see it. "Adelaide, is it over now?" he asked, sounding like he couldn't take in oxygen at the moment.

"Yes, Doctor." She stepped to the side, taking the Doctor's hand and pulling him off the wall.

The woman, meanwhile, turned to her. "You also have not received the official welcome package."

But Adelaide held up her free hand. "No thank you. We've all been welcomed enough."

The Doctor frowned at her. "Who are you?"

"I am Missy."

"Missy?" Clara asked, moving slightly in front of Adelaide in case the woman decided she wanted to try kissing anyone again.

"Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface. I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you."

"You're very...er...realistic." The Doctor coughed as he finished the statement.

"I am fully programmed with social interaction norms appropriate to a range of visitors. Please indicate if you'd like me to adjust my intimacy setting."

"Yes, do that, please."

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "We need to speak to whoever's in charge here."

"I am in charge."

"Well, who's in charge of you?"

"I'm in charge of me."

"Well, who repairs you? Who...who maintains you?"

"I am programmed for self-repair. I am maintained by my heart." Missy took Adelaide's hand, as she was the closest, and placed it on her chest, making the Time Lady's eyes go wide. "Is everything in order?"

"Who maintains your heart?"

"My heart is maintained by the Doctor."

The Doctor frowned. "Doctor who?"

 **A/N: Why, look who it is ;)**


	22. In Heaven

**In Heaven**

Missy turned her head to the side, shouting "Doctor Chang!" and walked off again.

For a moment, Adelaide didn't move her hand, but the Doctor tapped the top to remind her it was still out.

"Who's there?" a new voice, likely Dr. Chang, called as he stepped around a corner. "Hello?"

"Hello." Clara waved.

"Hello," the Doctor nodded.

"So..." Chang came to a stop in front of them. "Hey. Condolences."

"Condolences?"

"It's a mausoleum." Chang gestured around them. "It's our hello. Is there a particular dead person you want to talk to?"

Clara nodded. "Yes. Yes, there is."

"This way, then." He gestured to the side, leading them off. Clara followed immediately, the Time Lords taking one last moment to glance where Missy had gone before going after her.

They'd both touched the 'droid', they'd both noticed something that shouldn't have been there. Something that really made them wish they had the ability to communicate without speaking; they could now, to a degree, but not to the point that they would need to at this moment.

|C-S|

Chang brought them to his office, which was essentially an empty room with a tank in the center – skeleton inside – and a desk to the side. "Come in, come in," Chang said. "Going to need to take a reading off you."

"A reading?" Clara asked, the Time Lords – still holding hands – moving to look around the tank.

"Won't hurt." Chang flicked a switch.

"What won't?"

"How does the body keep its integrity?" Adelaide called to him. "A support exoskeleton?"

Chang nodded. "Exactly."

"An invisible exoskeleton?" Clara frowned.

"It's only invisible in the water. There's a specifically engineered refraction index in the fluid so we can see the tank resident impeded by the support mechanisms."

"So each skeleton is inside something?"

Clara glanced at the liquid. "Are you serious? X-ray water?"

Chang nodded. "It's so cool. Look at this. We call it dark water." He pulled a smaller tank towards him, something for examples, and stuck his arm inside. His jacket and wrist appeared to vanish, the flesh of his arm all that was visible. "Only organic matter can be seen through it." He withdrew his arm. "I keep saying they should use this stuff in swimming pools."

"Why?" the Doctor glanced at him.

"Think about it."

"I am thinking about it. Why?" he looked to Adelaide. They were both well aware of what Chang meant, what 'benefit' could be gleaned from doing such a thing, but...it was not something any sort of good person would suggest.

Clara, either wanting to avoid an impending lecture from Adelaide about manners and consent or thinking the Time Lords really didn't understand, spoke. "Doesn't matter. 3W, what kind of name is that? What does it mean?"

Chang looked between them. "Well, you know, don't you? You're here on business or they wouldn't have let you in. Sorry." He shook his head. "Should have checked. Who are you?"

"I thought that you would never ask. Sort out your security protocols, they're a disgrace." He gave the man his psychic paper.

"Another government inspection? So soon?" he frowned. "Why is there all this swearing?"

The Doctor took it back quickly. "Oh, I've got a lot of internalized anger. What does 3W stand for?"

"Well, the three words."

"What three words?"

Chang almost looked like he was about to laugh. "Seriously? You don't know?"

"Never mind what we know and what we don't know," the Doctor said, slightly snapping, "just answer our question."

"Because people who don't know, when they hear about this, they can freak out."

Clara shook her head. "We're not going to freak out."

"If you've had a recent loss, this might be...this will be disturbing."

The Doctor waved a hand. "She'll be fine."

Clara turned, pointing at the Time Lord. "Speak for me again, I'll detach something from you." She turned back to Chang. "I'll be fine."

"You know how people are scared of dying? Like, everybody."

Adelaide nodded. "It's the most fundamental fear in the universe. Right up there with a fear of the dark."

Chang turned to his computer, turning it on. "They'd be a lot more scared if they knew what it was really like." The screen turned to static, playing the accompanying sound. "White noise off the telly. We've all heard it. A few years ago, Dr. Skarosa, our founder, did something unexpected. He played that noise through a translation matrix of his own devising. This is a recording of what he heard." He pressed a button and the static faded into voices, though their specific words weren't discernable.

"Okay, people, voices."

"So what?"

"Over time, Dr. Skarosa became convinced these were the voices of the recently departed. He believed it was a telepathic communication from the dead."

The Doctor scoffed. "Why? Was he an idiot?"

"He was able to isolate some of the voices, hear what they were saying."

"So, an idiot then."

Chang paused the sounds. "What I'm about to play you will change your life and not for the better. These are the three words which caused Dr. Skarosa to set up institutes, like this one, all over the world, to protect the dead. If you'd rather not hear these words, there's still time..."

"Can you just hurry up, please, or I'll hit you with my shoe," the Doctor interrupted.

Chang just hit the button again. "Don't cremate me!" a voice shouted, making Clara jump. "Don't cremate me!"

"There is one simple, horrible possibility that has never occurred to anyone throughout human history."

"Don't cremate me! Don't cremate me!"

Clara shook her head, her eyes wide. "Don't say it."

"The dead remain conscious. The dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them."

"Fakery," the Doctor said. "All of it. It's a con, it's a racket!"

Chang shook his head, cutting off the recording. "I promise you this is not a con."

Clara looked around the room. "What's that beeping?"

"Never mind about the beeping. Who cares about beeping? The dead are dead. They're not talking to you out of your television sets. They're just gone and all those poor souls down there in these tanks, I'm sorry, but they're just dead and they're not coming back."

Chang just turned, adjusting something on his computer as if the Doctor hadn't spoken. After a second, someone spoke. "Clara?" it sounded like Danny. "Clara? Clara, are you there?"

"Danny!" Clara gasped. "I can hear you. Is that you? Oh, please, say it's you..."

"Just lost the signal," Chang said, working again. "But I can track it back, I'm pretty sure."

Clara shook her head. "I don't...I don't understand. What is happening?"

"We've been scanning you telepathically since you came in," Chang said as he worked. "You said you wanted to speak to someone who'd passed and we've found you a match in the Nethersphere."

The Time Lords exchanged a look. "This isn't possible. The dead don't come back."

"It was him. It was his voice!"

"If they scanned you telepathically, they could've lifted a voice print," Adelaide told her. "There's still a chance it's a fake."

"Getting him back," Chang said, "very nearly."

There was static, but it formed into Danny's voice. "Clara, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Danny, I can hear you. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. Clara! Oh, God, Clara."

Clara turned to the Time Lords. "What do I do?"

"Who are you talking to?"

"Hang on just a moment," she told Danny, still looking at the Time Lords.

"Question him," the Doctor finally said. "Ask him questions only he'd know the answer to. Be sure." He pointed at Chang. "You, with us." He pointed at the doors.

"Where are you going?" Clara asked them, the Time Lords already moving to leave.

"We need to look at the tanks," Adelaide said. "There's something that we're missing."

"Clara?" Danny called again.

"Skeptical and critical," Adelaide reminded her. "Notice everything."

The Doctor nodded. "Be strong, even if it breaks your heart."

Chang stepped back from the computer. "Connection's stabilized. It should be okay." He hurried after the Time Lords, not willing to let them wander alone.

"Who would harvest dead bodies?" the Doctor asked as they walked. "I feel like I'm missing something obvious."

"I hate that feeling," Adelaide mumbled.

"Well then," he squeezed her hand, "we'd better solve the mystery, shan't we, Sherlock Holmes?"

Adelaide sighed at him. "You're still the one who actually dressed up like him."

"And the one who maintains the thought that Sherlock could be a girl's name."

"And that he was fictional."

The Doctor just kissed her hand, the trio moving down the gallery. But then the Time Lords froze.

The skeletons were standing. The dark water was draining.

"Oh my God!" Chang gasped. "The tanks...the tanks are activating! They're not supposed to do that."

The Doctor frowned at him. "And all your dead people are standing. Don't you think you skipped the headline?"

"Now, now, children," Missy stepped out of the shadows again, coming to stand before them. "Naughty, naughty."

"Dr. Chang, your welcome droid has developed a fault."

But Chang frowned at them, shaking his head. "That's not a droid. That's my boss."

"You know," Missy shrugged, "I might have been guilty of just a teensy little fibette. Dr. Chang, I really liked working with you. I've enjoyed every day of it."

Chang blinked. "I'm sorry?" The Time Lords took a small step back at that.

Missy just smiled. "You know, I've even got a little photograph of you looking so sweet. I'm always going to keep it. Always!"

Chang swallowed. "Are you going to kill me?"

Missy put her hands on her hips, making a face. "Now, come on. Let's not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation, and I'm the one who's going to have to live with that."

"Please don't kill me."

She smirked. "Say something nice."

"Please, please. I don't...I don't want to die." He stumbled backward. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"Say something nice."

"Please!"

"Dr. Chang, I've got all day. And I'm not going to kill you until you say something nice."

Chang took a breath, trying to stand up straight. "It has been an absolute pleasure working with you, and I truly believe that you'll never be able to find it in your heart to murder me."

Missy soundly proved him wrong by pulling a device from her pocket, incinerating Chang instantly. The Time Lords backed away even further. "Now, I'll be with you in a moment." She looked down, looking very much like someone attempting to mimic regret. "Just feeling a bit emotional at the moment."

The Time Lords turned, realizing they'd hit their backs on a tank, and saw that the dark water had drained to the level that they could see the invisible exoskeletons holding the skeletons in place.

Cybermen.

"Cybermen," the Doctor breathed. "They're Cybermen, all of them. We've got to stop them getting out!"

"Now who's missing the headline?" Missy said, drawing their attention. "The Nethersphere." She gestured up to the roof of the building, some sort of large globe hanging there that they hadn't noticed in the dark before. "You know, it's ever so funny, the people that live inside that think they've gone to heaven."

The Doctor stepped away from Adelaide to get a better look at the Nethersphere, frowning at it. He recognized it. "That's a matrix data-slice."

"A Gallifreyan hard drive," Adelaide realized. She may never have been a particular fan of general technology, but she was aware of this.

"Time Lord technology."

Missy nodded at them. "Imagine you could upload dying minds to that. Edit them. Rearrange them. Get rid of all those boring emotions. Make them all Mr. and Ms. Clever." She glanced at Adelaide as she said it, a smirk growing. "Ready to be re-downloaded. Meanwhile, you upgrade the bodies. Upload the mind, upgrade the body. Cybermen from cyberspace. Now," the smirk became a grin, "why has no-one ever thought of that before?"

The two Time Lords stepped together again, facing Missy. "How did you get hold of Time Lord technology? Who are you?"

"You know who I am. I told you. You felt it. Surely you did."

"Two hearts," the Doctor and Adelaide said in unison. "You're a Time Lord."

"Time Lady, please," Missy corrected, "I'm old-fashioned."

"Which Time Lady?"

"The one you abandoned, Doctor," Missy spat. "The one you left for dead." She looked to Adelaide. "The one you were meant to help. The one you were meant to find." Back to both of them, but mainly the Doctor. "Didn't you ever think I'd find my way back?"

"Clara!" The Doctor turned, running to the lift. "Clara. Clara. We've got to get Clara!"

"Oh, Clara, Clara, Clara!" Missy repeated, rolling her eyes. "You know you should shoot him in a jealous rage." She gestured at Adelaide. "Now, wouldn't that be sexy? I've turned the lift off, though."

The Doctor looked back at her. "I presume you have stairs."

Missy scoffed. "Well, I'm not a Dalek."

The Doctor ran to a nearby door, sonicing it open and running all the way outside...only to find that they were on Earth, in the middle of the day, at St. Paul's Cathedral. Adelaide was only a step behind him, but Missy lagged, walking casually to match them. "Oh, my dears," she mused. "The Doctor really has made you slow, Adelaide. Didn't you realize where you were?"

Cybermen started to march out the doors around Missy. The Doctor ran down the stairs to the humans – who looked decidedly unsurprised – around them. "Get away from here! All of you, run!"

Missy came up beside Adelaide, taking her shoulder to keep the Time Lady from joining him. "Do you think he honestly thinks that'll do anything, or does he just like giving orders?" Adelaide wrenched her arm away.

"Go!" the Doctor continued. "Go! Get away from here! Run away! Run, run! Get away from here, all of you, now!"

But Missy just walked down to him. "I'm sorry, everyone. Another ranting Scotsman in the street. I had no idea there was a match on."

"Get away, go!"

"Stop shouting, love," Missy said. "Stop making a fuss." She stood between the two other Time Lords, looking between them with a grin. "It's too late. All the graves of planet Earth are about to give birth. You know the key strategic weakness of the human race? The dead outnumber the living?"

"Who are you?" the Doctor breathed, both of them needing to know, needing to hear it.

Because there was only one person who fitted what Missy had said, and if it was them...

Adelaide was really going to regret trusting the frightened little boy she'd found on Gallifrey so many years ago.

"Oh, you know who I am. I'm Missy."

"Who's Missy?"

Missy sighed. "Please, try to keep up. It's no wonder that you've slowed Adelaide down at this rate. Short for Mistress." The Doctor's eyes widened. "Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, now could I?"

Adelaide had thought her mistakes from the Time War had been solved.

It appeared she'd been wrong.

Adelaide hated being wrong.

 **A/N: Why look who it is ;)**


	23. From Devils

**From Devils**

"Oh, I love that expression," Missy said, spinning to point at Adelaide's face. "It's not often that you get to be shocked, I've heard. I'm honored." She gave her a small curtsy as though they weren't standing in a crowd of humans surrounded by Cybermen in the middle of the day. "Though, I suppose I can't really blame you for being slow. Last time we met, well," she smirked, "you were in a watch."

"Stay away from her," the Doctor sneered, the fact Missy was in between them meaning he couldn't get close to Adelaide.

"Oh, protective of the protector, I was looking forward to seeing that." But Missy did take a step back, spinning with her arms spread to the gathered Cybermen. "Look at them! My boys." She unpinned her hat and put it at a Cyberman's feet as people pulled out their phones to take photos of the fancy shiny metal men. "Photos with the big metal men, one pound." A few coins were thrown into the hat. "Oh, honey!" she turned again, watching various selfies being taken, before holding out her device and flicking through live streams of similar scenes. "New York. Paris. Rome. Marrakesh. Brisbane. Glasgow. Everywhere. Anywhere. Me and my boys. We're going viral!"

"Would you like me to take a picture?" the woman from UNIT – Osgood, if Adelaide remembered right – strode forward. "Sorry, selfies are never as good, are they? And you're having a lovely moment. Hang on!" she grabbed the device, stepping back and letting the Doctor grab Missy's arm.

"No, just..."

"Nice bow tie," the Doctor said to Osgood.

Osgood smiled. "Bow ties are cool." She held up the device. "Big smiles, and...now!" she moved back as every human in the surrounding area pulled out various sorts of weapons, more UNIT soldiers arriving from surrounding buildings.

"Move, move, move!" some soldier ordered. "Stand by. Surround target. Hold back!"

Kate Stewart emerged from the crowd, hands held behind her back. "Afternoon. You've picked a lovely day for it." She looked to the Doctor. "My, don't you look shiny. Haircut?"

He smirked. "Bit of a trim."

"Might want to do your roots." She followed the Doctor's hand on Missy's arm. "The woman."

"Yes, ma'am."

Two soldiers stepped forward, pulling Missy away from the other two Time Lords. Then Kate turned to the gathered Cybermen. "Kate Stewart. Divorcee, mother of two, keen gardener, outstanding bridge player. Also Chief Scientific Officer, Unified Intelligence Taskforce, who currently have you surrounded."

"Human weaponry is not effective against Cyber technology."

"Sorry, you left this behind on one of your previous attempts." Kate threw what she'd been holding – a battered Cyberman head – at the Cyberman's feet. The Doctor and Adelaide moved to stand beside her. "So now that I have your attention, welcome to the only planet in the universe where we get to say this. He's" she nodded at the Doctor "on the payroll."

"Am I?"

Kate shrugged. "Well, technically."

"How much?"

"Shush." Kate smirked at him before turning to the Cybermen again. "Any questions?"

In unison, the Cybermen hit their chests, stomping their feet as well, and flew into the air.

"Oh my God!" Osgood gasped, still looking at St. Paul's instead of the sky full of Cybermen. "Is it supposed to do that? Is that new?"

"A sunroof on Saint Paul's?" the Doctor shot her a look. "Yes, I'd say that was new."

"There's going to be mass panic," Kate said. "Everyone in London can see that."

As she spoke, more Cybermen flew out of the dome. "Everyone in London just clapped and went 'whee'. Hush, I'm trying to count."

"Eighty-seven, I think," Osgood offered. "OCD."

"Ninety-one," Missy corrected. "Queen of evil."

Kate shook her head. "How could Saint Paul's be full of ninety-one Cybermen and nobody noticed?"

"Dimensional engineering. One space folded inside another. Bigger on the inside." The Doctor looked to Missy. "Easy if you're a Time Lord."

"Mostly deploying south," Osgood informed them, "smaller number east."

"And one straight up."

"So ninety-one isn't a coincidence?"

"Coincidences are rare." Adelaide took Missy's device from Osgood, looking through it.

"Osgood? Ninety-one. Explain."

Osgood frowned. "Ninety-one areas of significant population density in the British Isles."

The Doctor pointed at her, looking at something on the screen Adelaide showed him. "That's one Cyberman for every city and major town. It's happening everywhere, all over the world, right now."

Missy sighed. "Sweet planet, this. I think I might keep it."

"One Cyberman per city. What could they hope to accomplish?"

Osgood pointed at the sky. "Doctor!" The Cyberman that had flown straight-up had self-detonated.

"Has it exploded?"

Adelaide was saved by commenting that the explosion of the Cyberman was obvious by Missy speaking again. "More than that. Cybermen don't just blow themselves up for no good reason, dear. They're not human."

"If it's not just exploding, what is it doing?" Adelaide asked, earning her a smirk from Missy.

"Pollinating. Falling like rain into the cracks of the Earth. The dead are coming home, Doctor. All shiny and new. In twenty-four hours the human race as you know it will cease to exist."

The Doctor stalked to her. "What are you doing? Explain. Tell me now."

Before Missy could speak, a UNIT soldier fired a dart into her neck, making her crumble at the knees. "Oh! That was nice. Must do it again..." she went unconscious.

"Don't worry," Kate said to Adelaide. "First protocol states that the pair of you shouldn't be treated the same when you're here."

"Would you have drugged me if Adelaide wasn't here?" the Doctor asked, crossing his arms and looking incredibly annoyed that Missy had gone unconscious. Kate just stepped back, holding out a hand to lead them further down the street, likely to a car. The Time Lords, taking hands, stepped past her. "Guard the graveyards."

|C-S|

The Time Lords stood in an airplane hanger watching as the TARDIS was lifted onto the plane beside them. Kate had refused to let them pilot the TARDIS here themselves, not trusting the Doctor to run off like that.

Granted, she needn't have worried, as Adelaide would have refused to let the Doctor wander off with a mystery of this type, but apparently, there were a variety of protocols in place that Kate had to obey, and one of which was not letting the Time Lords go wandering in the TARDIS.

"Be careful with it," a man called to whoever was doing the lifting of the TARDIS. "Be careful! Take your time."

The Time Lords turned as Missy, locked into a box trolley, was rolled past them. "Who is she?" Kate asked, stepping up.

"Long story." The Doctor looked back to her. "Where's Clara?"

"Clara Oswald, your assistant?" Kate clarified.

"Adelaide's assistant, my carer, and our friend. She was with us in Saint Paul's."

Kate nodded. "The team's still on site but they've been unable to gain access to the building."

"I want her found and brought here. We need her with us."

"Then give the order." Kate gestured at the plane. "As soon as you're on board Boat One your word is law." She looked specifically at the Doctor then. "Quite literally." She stepped back again, letting the Time Lords enter the plane first.

The main cabin of the plane looked like a conference room. The Doctor looked around the room, seeing Osgood and another man. "Where are we going? Cloudbase?"

"You mean the Valient?" Kate asked.

"Cloudbase was Thunderbirds," Osgood corrected.

Kate still shrugged. "Too conspicuous. We need your location concealed, not advertised. From now on you are both moving targets."

The Doctor nodded at the portrait of Kate's father on the back wall. "Ah, I see you're bringing Daddy along, too. That's very sweet."

The other man in the room saluted the Time Lords. "Sir, ma'am."

"Oh, don't do that," the Doctor made a face. "You look like you're self-concussing, which would explain all of military history, now that I think about it."

"Colonel Ahmed, sir, ma'am," the man continued, as though the Doctor hadn't spoken. "Privileged to meet you both."

The Doctor looked him up and down. "Love your outfit, Colonel Ahmed. Are you in the Scouts? Are you a Man Scout? I didn't know they had those." Adelaide just pulled the Doctor by his shoulder to the side to get him a cup of coffee.

Ahmed stepped closed to Osgood. "It was Captain Scarlet."

"Sorry?"

"Not Thunderbirds."

Osgood's eyes widened. "Oh God, so it was..."

"My confidence is growing every minute," the Doctor called.

"The President and Secretary are on board," Kate said.

"Hang on a second," the Doctor looked over at her. "The President and Secretary? We don't want Americans bobbing around the place. They'll only start praying."

"Not the President of America, sir," Ahmed said. "The President and Secretary of Earth."

The Doctor took a seat at the head of the table, starting to drop a large quantity of sugar into his cup. "There aren't any."

"There are now."

Kate nodded. "The incursion protocols have been agreed internationally. In the event of full-scale invasion, an Earth President and Secretary are induced immediately, with complete authority over every nation-state. There is only one practical candidate for each position."

"That's your answer for everything, isn't it? Vote for an idiot."

Kate smiled. "If you say so, Mr. President. So long as you're on this plane, you're the Commander in Chief of every army on Earth. Every world leader is currently awaiting your instructions. You are the Chief Executive Officer of the human race. Any questions?"

"Adelaide's my secretary? Because she answers the phone?"

"She's your Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Labor..."

"I believe that's clear enough." Adelaide took a seat next to the Doctor.

"This is your captain speaking," the captain called over the speakers. "Please prepare for take-off."

|C-S|

Though Adelaide did not share the same extensive history with Missy as the Doctor, she shared a distinct connection with the other last Time Lord that the Doctor never could. She was the reason that Missy had escaped the war in the first place. Partially, the reason they were in this situation at all.

She and Missy had made a deal that to find each other once they were turned human, one that Missy – though she'd tried – hadn't been able to fulfill.

Now, they stood before her in the cargo hold, Osgood a bit behind them and two soldiers surrounding Missy. One of the soldiers injected Missy to bring her back to consciousness.

"Why are you still alive?" the Doctor asked the moment Missy had blinked awake.

"You" she was looking at the Doctor "saved me."

"We saved Gallifrey."

Missy shrugged as best she could. "Yes, Gallifrey too, I suppose. There's always collateral damage with you and me. It's our Paris."

"As far as we're aware, Gallifrey is lost in another dimension," Adelaide said, drawing the Time Lady's attention.

"Yes and no."

"Explain."

She smirked. "Yes, it's in another dimension. No, it's not lost."

"I assume you know where it is?"

Her smirk grew. "Yep! You know the best part about knowing?" she leaned forward as best she could, dropping her voice. "Not telling you."

"Mr. President, Ms. Secretary," Ahmed called through the speakers, "we're ready for you both up here."

"Remember all those years when all you wanted to do was rule the world?" the Doctor said to Missy. "On our way."

"Thank you, Mr. President."

The Doctor spread his arms. "Piece of cake."

He turned, walking to Osgood, but Adelaide stayed for a moment longer, watching Missy. If you just looked at her, if you were just a stranger, could you see the madness? Adelaide had seen it as Caroline and heard enough stories from the Doctor that she knew that Missy's madness was really unmatchable.

But, somehow, when Adelaide had encountered a young child resurrected by the Time Lords to be the perfect soldier when she refused to bring down an army, she hadn't seen it. She hadn't recognized it. Maybe it had just been because she hadn't been looking for it.

Would she have saved the Master if she'd known, then, what type of a person he was? How much the other Time Lord favored destruction and entropy?

Or would she have still helped the child because she'd wanted to spite the Time Lords?

Missy seemed to guess what Adelaide was thinking about and leaned forward again, whispering. "Now that you've seen the truth about me, it's time to see the truth about your precious Doctor." She looked between them. "You two are filled to the bursting with fixed events. Pity Aligning doesn't have to end up happily."

At that, Adelaide turned and joined the Doctor, who'd been distracting himself by talking to Osgood. "...wasn't even the worst." Osgood looked over at Adelaide as the Time Lady stepped up. "Doctor, Adelaide, there's something nobody's talking about."

"Which is?"

"The clouds caused by the exploding Cybermen, they haven't dispersed. They're still there. In fact, they've expanded and are covering almost all the land masses. We're all looking at the graveyards. Maybe we should be looking up? What do you think?"

In response, the Doctor glanced at Adelaide, the two nodding. "All of time and space?"

Osgood frowned. "Sorry."

He grinned. "Just something for your bucket list." He stepped back from the ladder, letting Adelaide climb up first...which earned him a waggle of Missy's eyebrows when he glanced back at her.

|C-S|

The Doctor had taken his seat at the head of the table again, Adelaide again at the seat closest to his side. They'd brought up a news report in order to get an update on the current situation on Earth. "Localized rain in the cemeteries has resulted in what can only be described as disturbances to the soil. Extraordinary eyewitness accounts are claiming that silver creatures are climbing from the graves."

"These scenes are being repeated everywhere," Kate told them. "Every cemetery, every mortuary, every funeral home, ever hospital, the dead are returning to life as Cybermen."

"The public are being advised to stay away from all cemeteries."

"We've done heat scans of some of the cemeteries and, in each case, only a handful of Cybermen have so far emerged. But every individual burial site is active."

Ahmed frowned. "Active?"

"Hatching."

"More are coming," Kate added. "Potentially millions."

"So the rain caused all that in just a few hours?"

Adelaide glanced at Ahmed. "It wasn't rain, it was pollen. Every particle of a Cyberman contains the plans to make another Cyberman. The only necessary next step is to make contact with compatible living organic matter and then, full conversion." For the majority of her lives, she hadn't known anything like this about Cybermen, but then she'd had a Cyberplanner in her head and there'd been a small exchange of information between the two of them.

"But if they have learned how to convert the dead..." the Doctor looked up at the monitor showing Missy in the cargo hold. "That's what she was doing. That's what 3W was for. She creates an all-new paranoia among the super-rich about dying. She exploits the wealth and the mortal remains of selected idiots so she can create a whole new race of Cybermen. Cybermen who can recruit corpses." He looked down to Ahmed. "Throw away your guns, Man Scout, it's all over. How can you win a war against an enemy that can weaponize the dead?"

Ahmed shook his head. "They're not attacking, apart from isolated incidents. They're just wandering about."

"They're newborns," Adelaide said. "They need time."

The Doctor turned to Kate. "Why were you there this morning? Why were you already attacking?"

"Been investigating 3W for a while, then we got a tip-off."

"From a woman with a Scottish accent," Ahmed added.

The Doctor nodded. "Can't play to the gallery unless there's a gallery, and here I am." He looked up at Missy again, who stuck out her tongue at the camera.

"Dead bodies don't have minds, but she's been upgrading dying minds to a hard drive for a long time."

"So she upgrades the hardware, and then she updates the software."

Kate looked at them. "What do you mean, a long time? How long?"

"I have no doubt that she has a TARDIS hidden somewhere," Adelaide said.

"How long, Adelaide?"

"How long has the human race had a concept of an afterlife?"

The Doctor and she exchanged a look. "Turns out the afterlife is real, and it's emptying. Every graveyard on planet Earth is about to burst its banks." He stood, starting to wander around the room.

"Mr. President, you need to get back in your seat."

He made a face. "I don't like being the president. People keep saluting. I'm never going to salute back." He paused before Kate's father's portrait, taking a flower from the vase.

Kate stepped closer. "Do you know, that was always my dad's big ambition, to get you to salute him just once."

He looked out the window. "He should've asked."

"What's out there?" Adelaide asked, still at the table.

"The clouds. Still there. So what else have they got?" Even from where Adelaide was sitting, she could see the Cyberman head as it appeared at the porthole, making the Doctor jump back. "There's a Cyberman out there on the fuselage. But on the plus side, it's not turbulence." He looked at the monitor again, gasping and making Adelaide look. Missy wasn't there. "She's out. Who let her out?"

Adelaide immediately stood, rushing to join the Doctor as he left to return to Missy. They managed to reach the cargo hold quickly despite the increasingly turbulent flight from the Cybermen. Immediately, they guessed at least part of what had happened; Osgood's glasses were broken on the floor and the woman herself nowhere to be found.

It was confirmed when Missy, and Missy alone, stepped out from behind the TARDIS. "Oh, she was really scared. It's classic. Have you got any more friends I can play with?" the plane swerved, all of them stumbling but managing to stay upright. "Oh, oooh, ask me."

"Shut up!" the Doctor snapped.

"Ask me!" Missy leaned against the TARDIS. "Come on, you know you want to. You want to know what my plan is. You'll be surprised. I've got a gift for you, Doctor. You know, I've been up and down your timeline, meeting all those silly people who died to keep you alive. And you know what I worked out? What you really need."

The Doctor frowned. "For what?"

"To know that you're just like me!" The TARDIS phone, not Adelaide's, rang. "Oh, and now it begins." Missy grinned. "Doctor, I do believe you're on call. Miss Oswald expects. Who else but the girl who's got your number?" she held a hand to her mouth in a mock of shock. "Whoops!"

"That was you," Adelaide said, remembering when Clara had, somehow, managed to call the TARDIS phone.

"Computer helpline, love," Missy put on a strong cockney accent. "That's the one. Best helpline in the universe."

"You put us together."

"I kept you together. Gave you precious Adelaide," she gestured at the Time Lady, "put a nice advert in the paper."

"Why?"

"Cos she's perfect, innit? The control freak and the man who should never be controlled." She smirked. "Though, the real question is which of your girls is that? Which Oswald? You'd go to hell if either of them asked, and one did. The phone's ringing, Doctor. Can you hear that? Now that is the sound of your chain being yanked. Hell, Doctor!" She stepped back, letting the Doctor step forward to take the phone from the front of the box, and mimicked Clara's voice. "Help me, Doctor. Help me. Help me, Doctor."

He answered the phone, Adelaide stepping close enough that she was able to hear the conversation. "Clara?"

"With Danny."

"Danny's dead, Clara," Adelaide told her.

"Not yet. Not quite. But he wants to be."

Adelaide did, honestly, have to close her eyes at that moment because she knew exactly why Danny, converted into a Cyberman, would want death. Why she'd wanted it.

"Clara." They could hear someone crying. "Clara?"

"He's a Cyberman. Doctor, Danny's a Cyberman. And he's crying. Adelaide, he feels it. He's crying."

"Clara, don't do it." The Doctor took Adelaide's hand. "Just don't do it!"

"It's in his chest. He says it's an inhibitor. It can delete emotion or something."

"We already know what it does," Adelaide said. "If it's turned on, he'll become a Cyberman."

"He's already a Cyberman."

"No, he isn't. Not yet."

Clara sounded like she was crying too. "He's hurting because I hurt him and he wants it to stop."

The Doctor tightened his grip on Adelaide's hand. "Stop the pain and he'll kill you!"

"Look, are you two going to help me, because I can't do this alone."

"We're not going to help you commit suicide."

"Look, the TARDIS can home in on this call, right? Either you help me, or you leave me alone."

"Clara?" there was no response. "Clara, no..." he lowered the phone, Clara having thrown the phone away.

"Doctor!" Kate called, struggling to climb into the cargo hold. "The Cybermen are in. The plane's going down."

Missy turned to Kate, looking excited. "Oh, great. It's the daughter one. Do you like her? I like her." She pressed something on her wrist, making the plane swerve and them all grab onto nearby straps. Another button made the hatch open and Kate was sucked out, screaming.

"Why did you do that? You didn't have to do that!"

"Oh, don't be so selfish," Missy scoffed. "I'm going to miss her, too. In fact, you know what? Just for that, I'm leaving." She lifted her wrist to her mouth. "Boys, blow up this plane and, I don't know, Belgium, yeah? Kill some Belgians. Might as well. They're not even French. Bye!" she waved, disappearing in a teleport.

 **A/N: Honestly, Adelaide and Missy together is my favorite thing :)**


	24. With Saints

**With Saints**

The Time Lords stepped towards each other just as the plane exploded, freefalling together. The Doctor used the TARDIS key to guide them towards the falling box, managing to get the door open at the awkward angle and up to the console before it collided with anything disastrous. They, as Clara had said they could do, followed the signal to where Clara was, stepping out into a graveyard.

It was full of Cybermen and Clara was standing before one with a missing faceplate, revealing the face of Danny Pink. She'd also removed part of his chest plate, about to do what they couldn't let her.

"Clara, don't!" the Doctor shouted, running forward.

Clara turned to look at them both. "Help me." She really was crying now.

"If you do what you're trying to do, if you succeed, he will snap you."

Clara shook her head. "No."

"Then he will step over your broken body and break another and another and another. He will never stop."

Danny turned to them as well. "I will not harm her!"

But the Doctor only looked back at him. "PE. PE. PE."

"Sir." Danny gave him a small nod.

"I had a friend once," the Doctor began. "We ran together when I was little. And I thought we were the same. But when we grew up, we weren't. Now, she's trying to tear the world apart, and I can't run fast enough to hold it together." He walked forward, putting a hand on Danny's chest. "The difference is this. Pain is a gift. Without the capacity for pain, we can't feel the hurt we inflict."

Danny frowned. "Are you telling me seriously, for real, that you can?"

"Of course I can."

"Then shame on you, Doctor."

Adelaide looked up to the sky as the clouds above rumbled. "Danny, we need you to tell us what are the clouds going to do? What is the plan?"

"How would I know."

"You're part of a hive mind now, I know how it feels." She nodded towards Clara. "I assume that's how you located her. Just look."

Danny concentrated. "I can't see much."

"Look harder."

But he just shook his head. "Clara, watch this. This is who the Doctor and Adelaide are. Watch the blood-soaked old general and the cold-hearted scientist in action. I can't see properly, sir, ma'am, because this needs activating. If you want to know what's coming, you have to switch it on." He smirked as best he could. "And didn't all those beautiful speeches just disappear in the face of a tactical advantage and a logical choice?"

The Doctor looked down, sighing, but Adelaide stared straight. This was how her mind used to work, how she used to want her mind to work.

How she almost thought she wanted her mind to work now.

Emotionless. Logic. Tactical advantages.

No wonder the Time Lords had wanted her to make an army for them. Back then, she would have been a wonderful general.

A pity she'd cared for the soldiers more - at least, that's what she told herself, even though she knew it was a lie.

"We need to know," she whispered. The Doctor nodded, making something in Adelaide off-settle.

She'd thought it was nice, for a little, that the Doctor understood her more. That he'd grasped her way of thinking, that he knew that, sometimes, you had to make sacrifices that you might not mourn in order to reach the end.

But there was a reason that Adelaide had sacrificed herself on Lake Silencio instead of the Doctor.

He was the one who was meant to care. He wasn't supposed to be the one who needed a carer.

Perhaps she had had too much of an influence on him.

"Yes," Danny agreed, his voice matching her level. "Yes, you do."

Clara held out her hand to the Time Lords. "Give me a sonic."

When the Doctor shook his head, Adelaide hated that she felt a moment of relief. "No."

"Just do it, Doctor. Do as you are told."

The Doctor looked back to Danny as he did as Clara requested, passing her his sonic. "Typical officer," Danny scoffed. "Got to keep those hands clean."

The Doctor turned, unable to watch. Adelaide felt as though she couldn't look away. Felt as though she wished that she could just shut off her emotions with a flick of a sonic.

It would make all of this so much easier.

"Just point and think, yeah?" Clara asked her, knowing the Doctor might not answer, not now.

"Yes." Adelaide nodded.

"Okay." Clara raised the sonic, pointing it at Danny's chest. "I wasn't very good at it, but I did love you."

"I love you too."

The tears were worse now. "I'm never going to say that again."

"Me neither."

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

But Clara couldn't do it, not yet. "I feel like I'm killing you."

"I'm already dead. You're here this time at least."

Clara tightened her grip. "Goodbye, Danny."

"Goodbye, Clara."

She activated the sonic. Danny's face went blank and his back straightened. Clara moved to step away, shaking her head, but she turned and hugged him tightly.

"Clara, no!" the Doctor said, rushing forward. "Step away! He's activating! Clara, step away now! Don't..." he stepped into Danny's sight. "Danny, Danny, if you can hear me, if you're still there, what are the clouds going to do?"

"The rain will fall." Danny's voice was flat. "All humanity will die."

"And rise again as Cybermen."

"Correct."

"How do we stop it?"

"We cannot be stopped."

The Doctor moved to speak again but they were interrupted by a sound behind them, turning to see Missy had teleported back, floating to the ground using her umbrella. "Oh, that was brilliant!" she applauded them. "Oh, I love the telly here, but did you see that? Oh, Clara, you poor thing. You must feel like death. Let me pop away the pain." She started to type on her device, but Adelaide surged forward, grabbing it and throwing it away.

"No, Missy," she said, stepping back again.

"Oh, sorry," Missy shrugged, "I'm just getting a bit carried away. It's your friends, they're so more-ish. Hmm?" Clara took the device from the ground, moving back to hugging Danny. Missy, meanwhile, pouted at the Doctor. "Oh, stop looking all cross-pants. I'm here to give you a gift. Could you at least try and be excited?"

"What gift?"

Missy lifted her wrist device, speaking into it. "Cyberdears!" all the Cybermen around them came to attention. "Look at Mummy!" they turned. "Raise your arms." All the Cybermen began to obey her. All but one. "Lower your arms. Raise your right. Lower your right. Turn on the spot. There are exits at the front and rear of the aircraft. Please follow the lights up the aisle." She laughed. "You see, Doctor? The power to slaughter whole worlds at a time, then make them do a safety briefing. Everyone who ever lived – man, woman, and child – is now at my command. An indestructible army to rage across the universe. The more they kill, the more they recruit. Happy birthday!" bit both Time Lords blinked. "Oh! You didn't know, did you? It's lucky one of us remembers these things." She walked forward, taking the Doctor's hand. "Happy birthday Mr. President." She snapped the device onto his wrist and backed away into a curtsey.

All the Cybermen then bowed their heads to him, obeying him. "Doctor."

"Tiny bit pleased?" Missy straightened, waving a hand at him. "Oh, go on, crack a smile. I want to see if your eyebrows drop off."

"All of this...all of it, just to give me an army?"

Missy shrugged. "Well, I don't need one, do I? Armies are for people who think they're right. And nobody thinks they're righter than you! Even Adelaide knows she can do wrong, however much it pains her to admit it. Give a good man firepower and he'll never run out of people to kill."

"I don't want an army!"

"Well, that's the trouble! Yes, you do! You've always wanted one! You made her" she gestured at Adelaide "make one for you! All those people suffering in the Dalek camps? Now you can save them. All those bad guys winning all the wars? Go and get the good guys back."

"Nobody can have that power."

"You will, because you don't have a choice, not like your precious Protector. There's only one way you can stop these clouds from opening up and killing all your little pets down here. Conquer the universe, Mr. President. Show a bad girl how it's done." She dropped into a deep curtsy, head bowed.

The Doctor ripped the bracelet off, striding forward. "Why are you doing this?"

"I need you to know we're not so different! I need my friend back." She looked up at him, hopeful. "Every battle, every war, every invasion. From now on, you decide the outcome. What's the matter, Mr. President? Don't you trust yourself?"

The Doctor looked at her. This was what Adelaide didn't want. This was what Adelaide had never wanted. She didn't want to make choices for people, she didn't want to pick the outcome of wars. She never wanted that power.

He never wanted that power.

"Thank you," he told Missy, speaking gently. "Thank you so much." He blew a kiss towards her, turning to look at Adelaide and Clara again. "I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes." He paused at Adelaide there, holding out his hands towards her. "Thank you! I am not a good man!" he shrugged. "I am not a bad man. I am not a hero. And I'm definitely not a president. And no," he looked to Danny, "I'm not an officer. Do you know what I am?" he grinned, looking back to Adelaide. "I am an idiot, with a box and a screwdriver, who loves a very clever woman with a pen. Just passing through, helping out, learning. I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them." He gestured between Adelaide, Danny, and Clara, though he finished on the human and Cyberman. "Always them. Because love, it's not an emotion. Love is a promise." Danny wrapped his arm around Clara. "And he will never hurt her. PE, catch!" he threw the wrist device at Danny, the man catching it, and he turned back to Missy, whose eyes were wide. "You didn't notice, did you? You haven't been listening to Adelaide. While you were doing all your silly orders, while you were showing off, the one soldier not obeying."

Missy shook her head. "No, that's wrong. That's impossible."

"The rain will not fall," Danny said, releasing Clara as he put on the device and walked towards Missy.

"Oh? Why won't it?"

"The clouds will burn."

"And who'll burn them?"

"I will burn them."

Missy snorted. "How?"

"I will burn."

"One burning Cyberman is hardly going to save the planet."

"Correct." He lifted the bracelet. "Attention!" the Cybermen came to attention again. "This is not a good day. This is Earth's darkest hour. And look at you miserable lot. We are the Fallen. But today, we shall rise. The army of the dead will save the land of the living. This is not the order of a general, nor the whim of a lunatic..."

Missy scoffed. "Excuse me?"

"This is a promise. The promise of a soldier!" he lowered the wrist, looking to Clara. "You will sleep safe tonight." He stomped his feet, all the Cybermen doing the same, before they all flew into the cloud above, burning away the cloud covering the world to reveal the sky beyond.

Clara was silent for a while, looking up at the sky, before she lowered her gaze to the Time Lords again. "Well. The clouds have all gone."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, burned up. Totally burnt. Burnt to nothing." He caught Adelaide's gaze. "Sorry."

"10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2," Missy called, making the Time Lords turn again.

"What did you say?"

"The current coordinates of Gallifrey." Missy picked at her nails. "It's returned to its original location. Didn't you ever think to look?"

"You are lying."

"We can..." Missy looked between them. "We can go together. The three of us. Try something new."

"You'd be clapped in irons."

Missy shrugged. "If you like."

"I'm assuming you'll remember those coordinates?" Clara said, making them turn again. She'd stepped forward again, pointing Missy's device at the woman.

"No," the Doctor shook his head. "No, don't you dare. I won't let you."

"Old friend, is she?" Clara's hand started to shake as she started to cry again. "If you have ever let this creature live, either of you, everything that happened today, is on you. All of it, on you. And you're not going to let her live again."

The Doctor looked to Adelaide before stepping forward. "Clara, all I'm doing is not letting you kill her. I never said I was letting her live."

Clara looked at him. "Really?"

"If that's the only thing that will stop you, yes." He held out a hand and Clara, after a moment of hesitation, gave him the device.

"Seriously," Missy said, stepping back between two graves. "Oh, Doctor...to save her soul? But who, my dear, will save yours? Even your protector can't do that." The Doctor lifted the device, pointing it at her, and Adelaide did nothing to stop him. "Say something nice. Please?"

"You win."

Missy smiled. "I know." She closed her eyes.

The Doctor moved to press the button, so close to it...when something else struck Missy first. They all spun to see one Cyberman who hadn't gone with the rest. It pointed at something among the graves and they all moved towards it, though it was Clara who found it first. "Here!" she called.

It was Kate, lying unconscious on the ground. "Kate," the Doctor gasped, kneeling by her side. "She's breathing! She's alive!" He shook his head. "She can't be here."

"She is." Clara bent down as Kate's lips began to move, the woman saying something.

"She fell out of a plane," Adelaide said, looking up at the Cyberman who'd directed them there. "The Cyberman must have caught her."

Clara looked up. "She's talking about her dad."

The Doctor nodded, letting out a breath. "Of course. The Earth's darkest hour and mine. Where else would you be?" he saluted the Cyberman that had to be the Brigadier. It acknowledged him with a nod before flying into the sky. "Thank you," the Doctor mouthed, watching him.

|C-S|

Clara was already in the café when the Time Lords entered. She was waiting at a table with two seats opposite her, which they took. "Hey," the Doctor said, already taking Adelaide's hand beneath the table.

"Hey."

"We got your message."

Clara lifted her eyebrows. "Two weeks late."

He shrugged. "Not bad."

Clara nodded. "Improving."

Adelaide glanced down at Clara's wrist, where she wore Missy's bracelet. "He figured it out, then?" They'd managed to get into the Nethersphere and find Danny, giving him the bracelet. It had had enough residual power that it should have had enough to restore one person.

Clara blinked. "Yeah." She swallowed. "Yeah, he did."

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, good old PE. He'll make a maths teacher yet."

Clara leaned forward. "Listen, Doctor, Adelaide. There's...there's something that I have to tell you and...er...it's not good news so just...just listen, okay?"

But the Doctor nodded. "We know."

"Sorry?"

"We know exactly what you've got to tell us."

"You do?" Clara looked between them.

"You and Danny are together now, that's great. That's how it should be. But the old man, the clever woman, and the blue box, that's never going to fit in. So no more flying around. No more lying."

Clara frowned. "Okay, no, that's not exactly."

"It's fine." The Doctor looked at Adelaide, expecting her to nod, but the Time Lady was still watching Clara.

"No, it's not fine. It...it really isn't fine."

"We've found Gallifrey," the Doctor cut in, making Clara pause.

"Wow! Oh my God..."

"We entered the coordinates, just like she said. And we found Gallifrey. For once, she wasn't lying."

Though Adelaide hated lying – she could deal with not saying the whole truth, but not lying – she did not stop the Doctor.

They'd put in the coordinates, they'd opened the doors, and found nothing. Gallifrey had never been Adelaide's home, she'd never dreamt of returning to it, not as the Doctor had.

Not like he did.

The Doctor wanted forgiveness for what he'd done. He didn't want to be alone.

Adelaide didn't need that. She knew she'd made a mistake, not thinking of the outcome of the war. And maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't mind having the Time Lords back, as much as she hated them, even just to know that she wasn't partly responsible for killing so many innocents.

But to the Doctor, the fact that Missy had lied about this hurt him so much more than it ever would Adelaide.

"So," Clara looked between them again, "what are you going to do now?"

"Go home."

"Okay."

"Gallifrey can be a good place." Only the Doctor spoke. "I can help make it that."

"What," Clara eyed him, "you?"

"Shut up!"

"You won't just steal a TARDIS and run away?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, not this time. Never again."

Clara looked through the window behind them at where they'd left the TARDIS. "Never again."

"It's a long commute," the Doctor shrugged, "so, you know, I thought, with you and Danny..."

"Yeah." She nodded. "Me and Danny. Me and Danny, we are going to be fine. Don't you worry. You go home. Go home. Go be a king or something."

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded, "I might do that."

"Or queen," she shrugged again, "you know. Whatever."

"Yeah, queen, that would be good too."

"Yeah." Clara sighed. "Tell you what, seeing as it's goodbye, shall we all break a habit?"

The Time Lords frowned in unison, which only served to make Clara smile slightly. "What? What habit?"

"Hug."

The Doctor looked at Adelaide and shrugged. "Why not." He stood, still holding Adelaide's hand, and she followed suit a moment later. "Within reason." He released her hand, not looking like he wanted to, and turned to Clara. "Come on, you're on the clock."

"Fair enough." Clara stood and hugged him. It took the Doctor a moment, but he did return it. Adelaide stayed standing there, never a hugging person. Unless it was the Doctor. Unless they were alone. "Why don't you like hugging?"

"Never trust a hug," he mumbled, knowing it wasn't the reason Adelaide gave, knowing he didn't need to explain that to Clara. "It's just a way to hide your face."

When Clara stepped away from the hug, she took Adelaide's hand, holding it tightly, before she let the Doctor take it again.

Adelaide hadn't said much the entire time, clearly thinking about something, but she always relaxed when the Doctor took her hand. That was something that Clara had noticed about them from the start, even before the Time Lords had admitted their feelings for each other. They were the happiest when alone together.

The trio walked out to the TARDIS together. "Doctor, Adelaide?" she called as they reached the doors to their box, making them turn. "Traveling with you two made me feel really special. Thank you for that. Thank you for making me feel special."

"Thank you for exactly the same."

Together, the Time Lords entered the TARDIS, off to the universe together.

|C-S|

It was the Doctor's turn to be alone at the TARDIS console. Not that he was really alone. Adelaide was in the upper levels looking through the books, but from where he stood he couldn't see her.

She was different after Missy. They still had a difficulty talking to each other, but the Doctor was confident that she would soon. Something had bothered her about the entire affair, but he would figure it out eventually.

He would help her. He would always be there for her.

They were both jolted when there was a knock at the door, Adelaide immediately coming to the railing to look down.

"Coo-ee!" the person called. "Hello? Doctor? Adelaide? You know it can't end like that. Hmm? We need to get this sorted and quickly. She's not alright, you know. And neither are you, either of you. I'm coming in!" The door opened in a flurry of snow, the Time Lords not quite able to see who it was. "Ah, there you are! I knew I'd get round to you two eventually. Now, stop gawping, and tell me." He, Santa Claus himself, grinned. "What do you want for Christmas?"

 **A/N: Hmm...it almost seems as though Adelaide actually wants the Doctor to be a 'good man'...**

 **So sorry it's been a while since chapters. I had a really busy end of the year and, though I know this year will be busy again, I want to at least get to some kind of endpoint with this series.**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _Arashi - IV of VI: Thank you for reading :)_


	25. Skeleton Man

**Skeleton Man**

The Doctor rushed out of the TARDIS the moment that it appeared on Clara's roof, thankful to find the girl, in her dressing gown, standing there as expected, staring at Santa Claus and two of his elves in pure shock. "Clara, I want you to step inside the TARDIS. I don't want you to talk, I want you to do as I ask. Please."

Clara just looked at him.

"That was good, with the box," one of the elves commented, eyeing the TARDIS.

"Hmph," the other said. "Not often we get upstaged on a rooftop."

The Doctor stepped closer to Clara. "Yes, I'm really here. I'm back. Now get inside the TARDIS." Clara obeyed him silently, stepping back into the TARDIS with Adelaide as the Doctor turned to Santa. "I know what this is. Adelaide knows what this is. We know what's happening and we know what's at stake."

Santa shook his head. "I don't think you do, Doctor. But I promise, before this Christmas day is done, you will be glad of my help."

"Happy Easter." He entered the TARDIS, leaving the elves to chuckle about it behind him.

"Be sure to save some room for a tangerine, Doctor," Santa called after him, making the Doctor grimace.

"Nobody likes the tangerines." He closed the TARDIS door, turning back to face Clara and Adelaide, who was in the process of setting the controls.

Clara looked between them, the entire situation finally seeming to really register for her. "I'm really back here. This is...this is real, yeah?" the Time Lords said nothing, the Doctor just walking up to help Adelaide fly the box. "Doctor? Adelaide? Talk to me. I never thought I was going to see you again. What is going on out there? What's happening?" she looked up, laughing, as the time rotor started to spin. "Oh, that noise. Never knew how much I loved it."

The Doctor turned to look at the human. "There's something you have to ask yourself, and it's important. Your life may depend on it. Everybody's life." He paused. "Do you really believe in Santa Claus?"

Clara considered it for a moment before she started to smile. "Do you know what? Yeah. Right now, here, I think I do."

|C-S|

Since Clara was a human, she donned a large parka as the group of time travelers landed at the North Pole. They managed to get into the infirmary to find one woman in the center of the room and four other people lying on beds around the room, faces covered by sheets.

It didn't help that the one woman there whose face they could see screamed at the sight of them. "We've got ghosts!" the woman gasped, speaking through an earpiece. "Yeah, yeah. It's a skeleton man, a girl in a nightie, and tree nymph."

Clara moved to one of the beds, frowning at it. "Adelaide?"

"No, no, no," the woman shouted as they moved towards the bodies, "you're making me think about them. Don't make me think about them!"

"What are they?"

But as Clara spoke, the four people sat up. "Look, just don't ask, yeah? And don't look. Don't make me think about them." The sheets fell from their faces as they stood to reveal that their faces were covered by face-crabs that both Time Lords recognized, though the Doctor a bit more.

The Doctor scanned them with his sonic. "Deaf. Blind. How can they see us? How do they even know that we're here?"

"They can only see you, yeah, if you see them," the woman told them. "So just...so just don't look, don't even think about them."

"Oh, telepathic. They can home in on their own image in someone else's brain. Third-party perception. Mind piracy." The Doctor nodded. "We're being hacked."

Clara stepped back, moving closer to the Time Lords. "What does that even mean?"

"The visual input from your optic nerve is being streamed to their brains," Adelaide explained. "Close your eyes."

Clara did so immediately, but the people still moved closer. "They're still coming, aren't they?"

"It's because you're still thinking about them. So long as you retain them as an active memory, they can still home in. Think about something else."

The woman started to sing under her breath, making Clara frown. "Why is she singing?"

"She's running interference," the Doctor said, speaking quietly. "She's trying to distract herself. Five hundred and four minus seventeen."

"Sorry, what?"

"Plus twenty. Just do it!"

"Five hundred and seven," Clara answered.

They all moved closer as a crack started to form on the creatures. "Minus fourteen, times four."

"One thousand nine hundred and seventy-two."

The Doctor frowned. "Stop being so good at arithmetic."

"I can't help it!"

"Danny Pink!" the Doctor tried. "What is Danny Pink up to right now? He's probably flirting with your neighbor or texting women of low moral character..." he was interrupted by Clara spinning and slapping him.

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare say that."

"I was only..."

"Danny Pink is dead."

The creatures started to growl. "No, he's not." The Doctor frowned and Adelaide was staring at the human.

"He's dead."

The doors to the infirmary opened and three others ran in, hold guns. "Go, run, now, now, now!" the young woman who'd arrived ordered.

The Doctor grabbed the woman who'd been in the room when they arrived. "Come on, quick, quick, quick, come on!"

What seemed to be spiders started to drip from the ceiling, made out of some sort of mucus that had been coming out of the creatures.

"Here they come!"

More spiders appeared, one going right for Adelaide's face...

And then there was a large explosion that opened the outside door, a tangerine rolling in first a moment later and then a series of toys. For a moment there was just a silhouette of Santa riding a rearing reindeer before the man dismounted and entered the room with his elves by his side. "Well, now. What seems to be the problem? This is the North Pole. We don't want any trouble here." The reindeer snorted. "Hey, Rudolph." He clicked a car key fob, making Rudolph's nose blink. "Easy son. Oi!" he turned to the four people and their creatures. "Sleepyheads! It's Christmas Eve, early to bed." He clapped his hands, the four returning to their beds.

"Who the hell are you?" the new young woman asked, frowning at him.

"Oh, take a guess," the Doctor scoffed. "Go on, push the boat out. Tooth Fairy, maybe? Easter Bunny?"

"Shut your mouth, wise guy, or you get yours," one of the elves, holding a balloon, glared at him.

"It's a balloon animal," the other elf, holding a toy gun, informed him.

"That's a toy gun."

"Yeah, well, at least it's unsuitable for children under four. Parts small enough to swallow, so watch out."

"No, this is ridiculous," the first girl said. "Am I...am I dreaming?"

The Doctor pointed at her. "Oh, very good."

The young woman, who seemed to be some sort of captain, strode forward until her gun was pointing at Santa's midriff. "I need to know exactly who you are, and what's happening here."

Santa gently directed the gun away from him. "Hello, Ashley. Lead scientist on a polar expedition. Oh, that microscope really paid off, didn't it? Now, your mum and dad wanted me to get you a toy one, but sometimes, I take a chance."

Ashley blinked, clearly a bit startled. "Who are you? Why are you dressed like that?"

"Why do you think?"

"Come on," the first woman shook her head, "this is mental. This is totally not happening."

"I got three words, Shona. Don't make me use them."

Shona frowned. "What three words?"

"My. Little. Pony."

She glared. "Shut up, you."

"Yeah? I've got lots more, babe."

"I will mark you, Santa." She mimed clawing at him.

"Okay," Clara turned to the Time Lords, "are either of you going to explain? What is going on?"

"It's an invasion, Miss Oswald," Santa cheered.

"An invasion of...of what, elves?"

"Whoa!" one said. "That is racist."

The other nodded. "Elfist!"

"Yeah. Which is a bit hypocritical, from someone of your height."

Santa moved back, getting something from his saddlebag and showing it, one of the creatures, to the Time Lords. "Huh? You seen them before, either of you?"

The Doctor nodded. "I've heard of them."

"The Kantrofarri," Santa agreed.

"Colloquially known as the Dream Crabs."

"Yeah. Depending on how many of those are already on Earth, the human race may well have seen its last day." Santa looked between them. "So, are we going to stand about arguing about whether I'm real or not, or are we going to get busy saving Christmas?"

"Oh, ho, ho!" an elf laughed. "Santa goes badass!"

The other nodded. "He's giving me the feels."

"Shut up," Santa snapped. "That's a...that's a verbal warning. Please, stop it."

|C-S|

While the rest of the crew took Santa to the control room, Ashley brought the Time Lords, Clara, and Santa's Dream Crab sample to the laboratory so that they could study the alien.

"Is it dead?" Clara asked, watching as the Doctor and Adelaide lowered themselves to eye level with the Dream Crab.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, at the same moment Adelaide said, "possibly."

Ashley leaned closer as well. "I'm assuming extra-terrestrial."

"Oh, definitely," the Doctor agreed.

"Then how can you have heard of these things?"

He glanced at her. "Guess."

"Because you're extra-terrestrial, too."

"Do you believe that?"

Ashley nodded. "Why's it called a Dream Crab, for a start?"

Adelaide looked at her. "Theorize."

"Because it generates a telepathic field."

"And?" she prompted.

"Alters perception."

"Meaning?"

Ashley frowned. "I seem to be doing all the work here."

"Meaning we can't trust anything that we see or hear," Clara finished, glancing at Adelaide as she nodded.

"Go to the window," the Doctor said.

"Why?"

"Because it gets worse."

Ashley moved to the window and looked out to where they'd parked the TARDIS. "What is that?"

"That's how Clara, Adelaide, and I got here."

"In a box?"

He shrugged. "Technically, in a telephone kiosk."

Ashley laughed, turning back to them. "How?"

"Because it's a spaceship in disguise." He paused. "You know what the big problem is in telling fantasy and reality apart?"

"What?"

"They're both ridiculous." The Time Lords knew this in first hand after the whole deal of the Dream Lord...though there, the fact that Adelaide had started to determine that the Dream Lord was actually based in the Doctor and her, lightly, meant that she'd been able to figure out the logic of the dreams.

That was a bit more difficult to do here with the Dream Crabs.

"So we don't know what is real and what isn't?" Clara asked.

"Exactly."

"Are we in danger?"

"Oh, we are well way past danger, Clara."

Adelaide nodded. "If I'm right..."

"And she usually is," the Doctor added.

"We're dying."

Ashley straightened. "Then how do we stay alive?"

Adelaide looked to her. "If you actually use your eyes, I may quite like you. Can you show us how you first encountered the creatures and what happened to the people in the infirmary? After all, you all wear mini-cams, so one can assume there's footage."

Ashley eyed her. "Is it possible I'm about to work with someone who might be a dream?"

The Doctor shrugged. "If it helps, so are we."

"We have footage on the drives. I'll see what I can pull up."

"Ashley, what's this polar base for?" the Doctor asked. "Why are you all here?"

"It's a long story." She left, leaving the three people alone.

After a pause, Clara turned to them. "What you said about Danny. Unacceptable."

"I know." The Doctor attempted to avoid the human's gaze. "I had to flood your mind with random emotion."

"Random?"

"You never told us he was dead. You said he made it back."

Clara nodded. "Well, I lied. I liked, so you'd go home to Gallifrey instead of fussing about me."

"Gallifrey isn't home," Adelaide mumbled, not looking at either person. "But besides, we never found Gallifrey. The Doctor lied so that you'd stay with Danny."

Clara looked down at the Dream Crab. "So we're dying, then?"

"Yes," Adelaide nodded.

"Why?"

"Unknown at the moment."

"How long do we have?"

"Also unknown."

"Just..." Clara closed her eyes for a moment. "Adelaide, Doctor, give me something to do."

"Use your eyes. Trust nothing," Adelaide offered. "Accept nothing you see."

The Doctor nodded. "Whatever happens, interrogate everything."

"In case it's a lie?"

"In case it's a lie."

|C-S|

Ashley reappeared to bring the group to the control room after she'd found the records Adelaide had asked for, finding Shona attempting to interrogate Santa...though it didn't seem successful. "Reindeer can't fly. They just can't."

"No, no, they can't. I know it's a scientific impossibility, Adelaide, before you say anything. That's why I feed mine magic carrots."

The Doctor eyed Shona. "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to talk sense into...er...Beardy-Weirdy."

He frowned. "You don't seem much like a scientist."

"That's a bit rude, coming from a magician."

The Doctor looked to the rest of the people. "Why are you out here? What brought you to the North Pole?"

Shona shrugged. "Long story, isn't it?"

"You missed the killer question."

"Sorry, what?"

"Beardy-Weirdy," the Doctor called.

"Yeah?"

The Doctor pointed at Adelaide, but the Time Lady refused to ask the question, which made him pout slightly before doing it himself. "How do you get all the presents in the sleigh?"

Santa grinned. "It's bigger on the inside." One of the elves cheered at that.

"Adelaide?" Ashley called, both Time Lords hurrying to stand around her at the main monitor.

"What are we looking at?" the Doctor asked.

"Footage from a week ago," the final woman, Bellows, stepped closer. "A side expedition from our main mission."

He glanced at her. "What is your main mission?"

"Long story." Bellows gestured at the monitor. "Ice cave directly beneath this base. Now, look at what we found." Clusters of the Dream Crabs hanging from an icicle. "Dormant at first."

"Until you looked at them too long," the Doctor nodded. "Till you thought about them."

"Exactly."

"Sleeping. Probably been down there for centuries."

Clara stepped closer too. "And it wakes up when you think about it?"

"They can detect their own mental picture in any nearby mind."

Ashley nodded. "That's Bellows' theory."

"It's like it responds to the presence of any data concerning itself."

"Oh, that was always the legend," the Doctor mumbled. "You think about a Dream Crab, a Dream Crab is coming for you."

"This is where it gets really nasty," the man – who was in the process of eating a turkey leg – named Albert called.

"Only now?" Clara stepped back as a Dream Crab leaped onto the person wearing the headcam, switching the image to static.

"Okay, then what?"

Bellows switched the image to the infirmary, a time when they'd been putting the people attacked by the Dream Crabs into the beds they'd found them in when they arrived.

"They're a bit like Facehuggers, aren't they?" Albert offered.

The Doctor looked to him. "Face huggers?"

"You know, Alien. The horror movie, Alien."

He frowned. "There's a horror movie called Alien? I don't even need Adelaide to tell me that's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you."

"first, they just sleep," Bellows continued. "Couple of days, just lying there."

"And then they became aggressive."

Ashley nodded. "If we got close enough, yeah."

"It would take the Dream Crab time to take control," Adelaide mumbled, seeming to be thinking aloud. "Depends how much of the host brain it digested."

Ashley made a face. "Are they still alive under those things?"

"Depends what your definition of alive is."

"Are they suffering?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no," the Doctor said. "The Dream Crab induces a dream state. Keeps you happy and relaxed, in a perfectly realized dream world, as you dissolve. Merciful, I suppose."

"Compared to what?"

"Compared to that turkey leg you keep eating." The Doctor turned to the screen. "Could you rewind? I'd like to see them dormant again. Clara, could you fetch us the dead one?"

"Maybe I could fetch you a cup of tea while I'm at it," Clara mumbled.

"Oooh, yes, and a punch in the face, too."

"My very next suggestion," Clara left the room.

"Fair enough!" the Doctor called after her. "Of course, if anyone should have asked her to do that, it's Adelaide. She's your assistant, after all."

"Less talking and more thinking, Doctor." They watched the feed for a moment before the Time Lords sat back in unison, the same thought occurring to them.

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked, looking between them.

"We're thinking about it," Adelaide said, both Time Lords turning and running back to the laboratory, where they found Clara lying on the ground, Santa's Dream Crab on her face.

The Doctor rushed to her side. "Clara! You are dying. Dying! Dying! Clara! Clara! Clara! Clara! Clara, you're dreaming. You're dying. Can you hear me? Clara?"

"I assume no stimulus woke them?" Adelaide asked Ashley.

"We tried everything."

"Okay, we kill it." The Doctor nodded. "We find a way to kill it and we get it off of her. How do we kill it?"

Adelaide shook her head. "There's no way to fill it without killing Clara as well."

"And as a scientist," Ashley added, "may I just say, I don't like the way you're talking."

"Oh, now there are two of you," the Doctor groaned, turning to Santa. "Santa, in the infirmary, you told the Sleepers to go to bed and they obeyed you."

"Sorry, doesn't mean I can get that creature off her."

"No, but you can get back in there unharmed."

Shona frowned. "What? You're asking Santa for help? He doesn't exist."

"And when did you become an expert on what does and doesn't exist?" Adelaide asked her. "Scientists never assume they know everything."

Santa smiled slightly. "I can commit several million housebreaks in one night dressed in a red suit with jingle bells, so of course I can get back into the infirmary."

"Good. Because there is only one way that I can communicate with Clara." The Doctor looked to Adelaide and she knew what he was suggesting, what she would let him do.

What she, who noticed everything and could recognize dreams, really should have been doing but was thankful he wasn't making her.

Adelaide had had quite enough of being trapped inside her own mind for the rest of her regenerations.

|C-S|

Even though Adelaide knew that the Doctor was going to be fine – as she kept telling herself – the sight of him lying next to Clara with a Dream Crab on his face was not a pleasant one.

"Have we just killed him?" Ashley asked her. "Have we just made it worse?"

"He thinks he can join the dream and get her out," Santa answered for Adelaide. "Have a little faith."

Adelaide said nothing, but she let out a breath when the Doctor and Clara sat up straight, their Dream Crabs falling from their faces. Immediately, she knelt by Clara's side. "Clara, look at me. Breathe. Breathe. Just breathe." She glanced over at the Dream Crabs as they turned to dust. "Breathe."

It was only once Clara nodded that Adelaide stood and used a pair of tongs provided by Ashley to pick up the one bit of the crabs that hadn't truly disintegrated to put in Santa's jar again. "So these creatures, when their feeding goes wrong, they die?" Bellows asked.

The Doctor nodded, helping Clara stand. "The carnivore's hazard. Food has teeth too." He watched as the human started to feel her temple. "You okay?"

"No."

"Good. There are some things we should never be okay about."

"There doesn't seem to be a wound."

"No," he agreed. "And the pain's still there, isn't it?"

"Is it the ice cream pain?" Shona asked. "Just here?" she touched a spot on her temple. "Cos I've got that."

"It's the cold, I think," Bellows offered. "Some sort of reaction."

"But only on one side, just that spot there," the Doctor touched the same spot. "Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"Well," Albert shrugged, "we've all got it."

"Okay, so why do we all have that pain?"

The Doctor grinned. "Theorize."

But Clara just rolled her eyes. "Don't treat me like a beginner. I've been traveling with Adelaide this whole time. I was dreaming, then I woke up."

"Did you?" Adelaide asked. "Ever woken from a dream and discovered you were still dreaming?"

The Doctor nodded. "Dreams within dreams. Dream states nested inside each other."

"Extremely possible, especially when one is dealing with creatures who have weaponized dreams."

"I don't know about anybody else, but I'm pretty certain I'm awake right now," Bellows said.

"And your evidence for that?"

Ashley frowned. "Evidence?"

"How can any of us be awake?"

Shona shook her head. "I don't understand."

"Remember how we all first met, in the infirmary?" the Doctor asked. "All those creatures coming down from the ceiling, attacking us. We never stood a chance. How did we survive that?"

"Well, we...we were rescued."

"Yeah, we were rescued. And who was it that rescued us?" The crew looked around, finding that the man had vanished.

 **A/N: At some point Adelaide's penchant for wearing green would get her a nice nickname ;)**

 **One chapter left of this story, and then we move onto the next story, the title of which you get to find out in said next chapter. It will certainly be an interesting one...**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _lautaro94: Well, now that's on my list of episodes I need to watch. I have always liked the idea of having a spin-off where Adelaide either encounters planets that the Doctor has been to or just encounters the Doctor before and somehow neither of them realize who the other is._

 _Arashi - IV - VI: I'm so glad to hear that! Glad you're enjoying it!_


	26. Magician

**Magician**

They found him alone in the control room in the middle of a call, which, even in this possible dream, Adelaide refused to let the Doctor interrupt.

Instead, she wanted to prove to the humans that they were all in fact dreaming. "The Helman-Ziegler test. Quite a reliable dream test."

The Doctor nodded, holding up four books. "Your base manual. I take it none of you have memorized this."

Shona laughed. "Oh, I haven't...I haven't read it."

"The books should be identical in the real world but, if they don't exist in your memory, they can't be identical in a dream. Understand?" they all nodded. "Clara, a two digit number, please."

"Fifty-seven."

The Doctor handed out copies of the book. "Now, everyone turn to page fifty-seven and look at the first word. Read it out as the Doctor points to you." Adelaide nodded at him, and he pointed to Ashley.

"Isotope."

He moved to Bellows. "Well?"

"Extremely."

Albert. "Inside."

Shona. "Chocolate." She frowned. "Why did I get chocolate? What's that about?"

Albert shook his head. "This can't be right. We must have got it wrong, that's all."

"Then we'll do it again. Always repeat experiments to attempt to eliminate error. Clara?"

"Twenty-four."

The Doctor nodded. "Twenty-four." He pointed at them all in the same order.

"We."

"Are."

"All."

"Shona?" the Doctor asked when the woman didn't immediately answer.

"Dead."

They fell silent. "Since the attack in the infirmary, nothing has been real?" Ashley asked.

"The attack is still going on. This is it!"

"We've been dreaming since then?"

"Oh, for Easter's sake!" Santa called, hurrying over. "Of course you've been dreaming. Adelaide, I'm ashamed. Haven't you been paying attention?"

"Rudolph," an elf said. "Did you see the nose?"

"The North Pole? Come on, with stripes?"

"This."

"Is."

"A dream!" the three finished in unison.

"How much more obvious do you want me to make it? Because I can text the Easter Bunny, you know."

The Doctor frowned at him. "Seriously? You're trying to help?"

"As you stand here, chatting, chatting, your lives are ending. Unless you wake up, unless you free yourselves from these dreadful creatures, they're...they're going to destroy you!"

Shona looked him over. "You're a dream who's trying to save us?"

"Shona, sweetheart, I'm Santa Claus. I think you just defined me."

Adelaide nodded. "Of course...Dream Crabs attempt to make the dream as real as possible to trap you inside it, creating dreams within dreams so that you're never certain when you're awake, but brains are clever. Subconscious is clever. Subconscious fights back."

The Doctor gestured at Santa. "This is your mind trying to tell you this isn't real."

"So it gives you me. Sweet Papa Chrimbo."

"It gives you comedy elves, flying reindeer."

"Exactly."

"A time-traveling magician in love with a scientist."

The elf laughed. "Classic!"

"No," the Doctor tried, "no, no, hang on, no, no, no, no..."

"Living in a phone box..."

"It's a spaceship in disguise!"

"You see how none of this makes any sense?"

"Shut up, Santa," the Doctor snapped.

Santa calmed. "I have watched over you all your lives. I've taken care of you from Christmas to Christmas."

Bellows shook his head. "But you're not real."

"And yet that never stopped me." He gestured them closer. "All of you, come near. Come here, come on. Join hands."

The Doctor made a face. "Look, no, look...we don't need all this touchy-feely stuff."

"Shut up, Doctor. Join hands. Come on, concentrate."

The crew drew closer, Bellows hesitating. "Why?"

"You are deep inside this dream, alright, and it is a shared mental state, so it is drawing power from the multi-consciousness gestalt which has now formed telepathically and..."

"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor interrupted. "Line in the sand. Santa Claus does not do the scientific explanation, that's Adelaide's thing."

"Technically, that's both of our things," Adelaide shrugged.

"As the Doctor might say," Santa put on a Scottish accent. "Oh, it's all a bit dreamy-weamy."

That made the Doctor glare. "Why don't you just go and...and make a naughty list?"

"I have, mate, and you're on it. Clever girl too."

"Don't give me that." The Doctor crossed his arms. "Look, you're supposed to be warm and friendly and cheerful."

"Oh, yeah," the accent was back. "Well, look at your great bedside manner."

"Don't be so hostile..."

"Doctor," Clara cut in, "behave."

"This is very sweet," Ashley continued, "but right now I have an alien life form wrapped around my face and apparently it's digesting my brain. When you speak, how do I know it's not the Dream Crab?"

"Ooo, good question," Santa nodded. "Spoken like a scientist. Watch out, Miss Bossy, otherwise Adelaide might replace you."

Clara just shook her head. "Can I put it another way? Why would the part of our brain that is trying to keep all of us alive choose you for a face?"

Santa looked around at them. "Is anyone else asking that?"

"Yeah, yeah," Shona said. "All of us. All of us. Why you?"

"Why me? It's the North Pole, it's Christmas Day. You're dying. Who you gonna call? Just one last time, huh? One last Christmas, as if your lives depended on it. Please! Ho, ho, ho. Believe in Santa."

The humans, after a moment, formed a circle, Adelaide and the Doctor joining in. "I'm not very good with this holdy-hand thing," the Doctor said.

"Tough."

"I will hold Clara and Adelaide's hand, but that's it."

"Pity that's not how we're standing, then," Clara said, Adelaide between her and the Time Lord. "Shona, take his hand."

"This is very Christmassy, isn't it?" the Doctor said, doing as Clara ordered only when Adelaide gave him a look.

"Okay, so what do we..." Ashley looked around, only to find that Santa and his elves had vanished.

"Where did he go?"

"We're waking up," the Doctor said. "That part of the dream is over. We're on our own now."

"Well, then. What do we do?"

"That pain in your head. Make it worse. Head towards it."

Ashley nodded. "So when we wake up, what do we expect?"

"Only a few moments will have passed at the most," Adelaide said. "The attack is still in progress."

"I'm scared," Shona mumbled.

"Congratulations. That means you're not an idiot."

Clara glanced at him. "It's not like the last time."

"Last time wasn't real."

Ashley looked at them all. "Good luck. Stay calm. And God bless us, every one."

|C-S|

Everyone jumped awake as the Dream Crabs fell from their faces, the Sleepers clutching their heads and writhing from pain. They all coughed, but the Time Lords leaped up first. "Run!" one of the Sleepers grabbed Clara's arm. "Clara!"

"Doctor!"

He pulled her free. "Clara? Come on!"

"Out, out, now! Now!"

They rushed out of the room, closing the doors, though Bellows had to hit back a stray hand before they could close fully.

"Everyone alright?" the Doctor asked, sonicing the door closed, as the humans nodded. "Good. Bye." Without another word, he turned and, taking Adelaide's hand, walked down the corridor. Clara, after a moment, followed. "No need for chatting, you'll only get attached. This isn't Facebook."

They hurried back into the cold. "Er...what about the Dream Crabs?"

"Oh, they're fine."

"And the people that they're eating?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Beyond help."

"Doctor, the others are still in danger."

"Only if they're stupid." He shrugged. "There are polar bears on this ice cap. Am I supposed to do something about that, too?"

"No messing with ecosystems," Adelaide said.

Clara frowned. "We know Dream Crabs are still on Earth."

"There are lots of dangerous things on this funny little planet of yours, Clara, most of which you eat. We're the Doctor and Adelaide, not your mam." They reached the TARDIS.

"Adelaide, Doctor? If Santa was only in the dream, why was he on my roof?"

The Time Lords paused, their minds finally fully understanding the situation. "Four," Adelaide breathed. "Four patients, four manuals."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Hurry!" they ran back towards the base. "Do you know what I hate about the obvious?"

"What?"

"Missing it." They ran through the halls back to the control room, finding the crew again. "As you were. No saluting. Are you the same people as before?"

"Of course they are."

"Oh, sorry," he waved a hand, "I deleted you."

"Well," Shona crossed her arms, "that's not a very nice attitude, is it?"

"Four manuals," Adelaide said, taking the manuals.

"Yes, why?" Ashley asked.

"One each."

"One each, yes. What's the problem?"

"Well, the problem is...you can't see the problem. For instance, you, gobby one," the Doctor pointed at Shona, Adelaide throwing her a manual.

"I have a name, actually."

He waved a hand again. "Doesn't matter, I don't need it. When we first met you in the infirmary, what were you doing?"

"It's a long story."

"Uptight boss one," to Ashley. "What is the primary mission of this polar base?"

"It's a long story."

"Idea one." Bellows. "What brings you to the North Pole at your age?"

"It's a long...story."

Clara stepped back. "Okay, why are they all giving the same answer, because that is a tiny bit freaky."

"If you think that's freaky, try this." He turned to Clara. "We were in the TARDIS. Why did we come here?"

"It's a long story." A pause, Clara's eyes widening. "Why..."

"Dreams, they're funny. Ha, ha, ha. They're disjointed They're...they're silly. They're full of gaps. But you don't notice because the dream protects itself. Stops you asking the right questions. For example, why do you have four manuals, one each, when you have a crew of eight?" he nodded at the screens. "Or did you forget about your friends in the infirmary here?"

"But we woke up."

"Dreams within dreams, I warned you."

Bellows shook her head. "This isn't a dream. I know it isn't."

"No one knows they're not dreaming. Not one of us. Not ever. Not for one single moment of our lives."

"Clara?" Adelaide looked to the human. "Page number, please."

"Twelve."

The crew opened their manuals, reading in the same order.

"Very."

"Very."

"Very."

"Dead."

The Doctor nodded. "And who's going to be the first to admit it?"

"Admit what?"

"That the pain" Adelaide tapped her temple "is still there."

Shona frowned. "Actually, I think it's getting worse."

"There is an alien organism eating your brain. Of course it's getting worse."

"What are they doing?" Clara called, pointing at the screen to let them see that the Sleepers had sat up.

"Factually, getting up," the Doctor said. "Significantly, sensing the endgame."

"How?"

"I don't understand."

"Look at them," Adelaide prompted. "Notice everything. Look at who they are...they're you."

The crew moved forward, all finally recognizing themselves in the respective Sleepers. "How can they be us?" Shona breathed.

"Because we're dreaming, all of us." The Doctor nodded. "This base isn't real. None of us are actually standing in the room. Adelaide and I are probably asleep in the TARDIS. Clara, you must be in bed. God knows where the rest of you are, probably scattered all over the world. But wherever you are, the Dream Crabs have got us, and we're all being networked into the same nightmare."

"What are they doing?" Bellows asked, watching as the Sleepers started to move towards the camera.

"It's your subconscious again. The Sleepers represent the part of your mind that's already surrendered to the attack. These are dream images of what's coming to kill you."

Albert leaned closer to the screen. "That's me? That's actually me?"

"No, it's a metaphorical construct representing a psychic attack within a shared dreamscape. Do please keep up."

Adelaide glanced at him. "See? Both of us do the scientific explanations."

"But it's me..." Albert leaned closer.

"Don't get too close," the Doctor warned as the Sleeper version of Albert put a hand up to the camera.

"Why?"

"Because this is a nightmare." As the Doctor spoke, the Sleeper had grabbed Albert through the screen, pulling him into the monitor with a scream. Clara rushed to try and grab him, but the Doctor grabbed her back. "No! Clara!" Ashley and Bellows started to do the same. "Look out, they're coming through. Out! Outside, now! Run, run, run, run! Run! Clara, run. Run, all of you, run. Run!"

The Sleepers came through the screen as the others ran, the Doctor trying to use a fire extinguisher to slow them down but failing, running when Adelaide grabbed his hand and pulled.

They burst outside together, Adelaide spinning to lock the doors behind them.

"We'll freeze to death out here," Bellows said, starting to shiver despite the fact that all the humans had somehow acquired coats.

"But it...it's just a dream."

"This dream just killed your friend," the Doctor told her. "Start taking it seriously."

"Where's Albert? Where's the professor?"

"He probably just woke up somewhere in the real world, dead. If we don't wake up now, we'll do the same."

Clara shook her head. "But how?"

The Doctor looked at Adelaide. "I don't know." The Sleepers started to hammer on the door, actually making indents in the metal. "The TARDIS! Come on! Come on!" he started to run towards it.

"Doctor, that's not the real TARDIS," Adelaide reminded him.

"Well, let's hope that we dreamed it really well, then."

But before he got close, the TARDIS doors opened and three more Sleepers – the Doctor, Adelaide, and Clara – emerged.

"It's us."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course it's us. We're dreaming too."

Shona looked around, gasping as the number of Sleepers started multiplying. "Oh my God..."

"How is that possible? How can there be so many?"

"The logic of a nightmare," Adelaide said.

"So tell us how to wake up," Shona snapped at the Time Lords. "Because you're always talking like you're so clever, going on and on. So tell us what to do!"

"We have to leave this place."

"Leave it?"

"How?"

He shrugged. "Use your imagination."

"Excuse me?"

"Dream yourselves home."

"But how?"

The Doctor grinned. "Come on, it's Christmas, the North Pole. Who you gonna call?"

Something jingled above them, making them all look up as Santa, complete with sleigh and reindeer, flew down towards them, landing. "Whoa! Whoa! Get in the sleigh." They all hurried to climb in, the Doctor getting next to Santa, Adelaide and Clara behind him, and the rest of the crew in the back. "Fortunately, I know all your home addresses. Yah!" the reindeer pulled the sleigh into the sky.

"So what happens now?" Clara asked the Time Lords, shouting slightly to be heard over the wind. "This is us just waking up, right?"

"Possibly. Either waking up or..." but Adelaide cut herself off.

"Or?"

The Doctor glanced back at them. "Just focus on this. Do you believe in Santa Claus?"

Clara smiled. "I've always believed in Santa Claus. But he looks a little different to me." She put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, pointing below them as they flew over the Thames. "Look!"

"Hey," Santa said, looking over to the Doctor. "You want to take the reins, Doctor?"

"You're a dream construct currently representing either my recovering or expiring mind."

Santa held out the reins. "Yeah, but do you want a go?"

The Doctor grinned. "Yeah, alright." He took them just as they passed Saint Pauls, nearly missing the nearby rooftops in the process. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

"Easy!" Santa guided him. "This way...up a bit, lift up. There we go."

"Look at me," he cheered. "Look. Look at me!" the humans in the back cheered, Adelaide laughing. "Look at me! I'm riding a sleigh. I'm riding a sleigh! Yippee ai-yay!" he actually stood in his excitement only for Santa to pull him down by his pant leg. "Oh. Maybe you could..."

"Yeah, yeah," Santa agreed, taking the reins back. "Want a go, Adelaide?"

"Even in a dream, flying Earth reindeer..." Adelaide shook her head, making the Doctor laugh.

"I work in a shop," Shona said suddenly, making them all turn to her.

"I'm sorry?" Ashley asked.

"I thought I was a scientist. That's rubbish."

"Finally," Bellows nodded, "something that makes sense."

"You're horrible, you."

"Perfume," Ashley mumbled.

"What?"

"I'm an account manager for perfume. Does this mean we're waking up?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Possibly. With any luck, we'll all wake up in our proper times and places."

Clara frowned. "Proper times?"

"Well, we could all be from different time zones. Time travel is always possible in dreams."

Shona shook her head. "We might not know each other? Not any of us?"

"No, possibly not."

"Well, you know what we should do?" Shona said. "We should swap numbers. We should have a reunion."

But when Ashley looked to the side, Bellows had vanished. "Bellows!"

Shona focused. "Er...now I'm pretty sure I can remember my number so, if you memorize it, then you text me, we can go for a curry and..."

"The chances of you remembering any of this are very slim," the Doctor interrupted.

"Well, don't say that. "We'll remember, won't we, Ashley?" but when she looked to the side, the woman was gone. "Ashley?" her eyes widened. "Am I next? Is it me now?"

"Shona, you're going home. You're surviving," Clara reminded her.

"Do you want to hang out sometime? We can just hang out."

Clara nodded. "Sure."

"Santa? Can I stay a bit longer?" but then she vanished too.

Clara sighed. "It's a pity we have to wake up, really. It's not really something we do every day, is it?"

Santa laughed. "No, no, strictly once a year."

"We stay, we die, Clara," the Doctor reminded her.

"You're always such a downer, Doctor."

But both Time Lords vanished a second later.

|C-S|

They woke on a volcanic ledge, the ice cream pain more noticeable now than ever. "Clara!" they ran back to the TARDIS, tracking the Dream Carb psychic signal to, indeed, Clara's home. Adelaide found a specimen jar in her arms just as they reached Clara's bedroom, finding her with a Dream Crab still attached.

"Oh, Clara," the Doctor breathed, pulling out his sonic. "I might have known that you would be the one to sleep in. Okay, we tracked the psychic signal here. I'm pretty sure that I know how to do this now. One of the advantages of actually being awake. So, you just hold still. I've just got to zap the neural centers..." he soniced the edges of the Dream Crab. "Okay, there we go." He pulled it from Clara's face, dropping it into the specimen jar. Clara sat up, coughing, and turned to her light. "The Dream Crabs must have got to Adelaide and me first then found you in our memories. The others were collateral damage." The light came on. "Well, good to see you properly at last. How long has it been?"

The human turned to face them and the Time Lords stilled, seeing her wrinkled skin and grey hair. She'd aged. "Oh, you know, about sixty-two years." She smiled at them. "Doctor, Adelaide, I have missed you very much, you clever girl and foolish boy." She hugged the Doctor, still sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I've missed you, too."

Clara frowned at him. "Can you really see no difference in me?"

"Clara Oswald, you will never look any different to me." The Doctor smiled, leaving Adelaide to work with her sonic and the Dream Crab to attempt and think of a way to get them out of this dream...though by the way the Doctor looked, he didn't think it was a dream at all. "So, how was it then?"

"How was what?"

"The sixty-two years that we missed."

Clara nodded. "Oh, how was my life, you mean?"

"Is there a Mr. Clara?"

She sighed. "No. But there were plenty of proposals."

"They all turned you down, though?"

Clara lifted her chin. "I turned them down. I traveled. I taught in every country in Europe. I learned to fly a plane."

"Regrets?"

"Oh, hundreds." She sighed. "I just wish there were time for a few more."

"Yeah, they were always the best part." He looked around. "Christmas cracker...we should do one..." back to Clara. "No one ever matched up to Danny, eh?"

"There was one other man, but that would never have worked out." Clara shook her head.

"Why not?"

"He was incredibly taken."

The Doctor smiled slightly, taking Clara's hand. "We should do this every Christmas."

"Because every Christmas is last Christmas."

He looked down. "I'm sorry. I was stupid, I should have, we should have, come back earlier. I wish that we had..."

"Then it's a very good thing that this is a dream," Adelaide said, knowing it would take too long to try and do any of the ideas she'd come up with. "Neural shock..." she slapped Clara gently, but enough to shock the woman, before turning and kissing the Doctor soundly.

Thankfully, the two, as she was well aware, worked quite well to shock someone back to consciousness.

|C-S|

Back to the volcano, but this there was no ice cream pain. They hurried back to Clara's home, wasting no time in removing the Dream Crab, letting Clara jolt awake, coughing.

Immediately, the woman's hands went to her face. "Am I young?"

"Yes," Adelaide said, at the same time as the Doctor's, "no idea."

Clara grinned. "Oh, that's good."

The Doctor grinned too. "The TARDIS is outside..."

The human lifted her eyebrows. "So..."

"So, all of time and all of space is sitting out there. A big blue box. Please, don't even argue."

Clara paused for a moment before giving the Doctor her hand, her grin growing. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Clara Oswald." Without another word, the Doctor pulled Clara outside, Adelaide following...and turning off the lights as she went.

They paused outside of the TARDIS as Clara pulled on her boots and jacket. "Well, look at you, all happy." She looked the Doctor over. "That's rare."

"Do you know what's rarer? Second chances." He took Adelaide's hand. "I almost never get a second chance, so what happened this time?" he shook his head. "Don't even know who to thank."

They all stepped into the TARDIS together, off to see all that time and all that space the Doctor had mentioned.

 **A/N: Of course Adelaide realized the last scene was a dream :)**

 **This story will be continued in the sequel, _The Mighty Fall_ , which is now posted on my profile. Hope you enjoy ;)**


End file.
